Zero Sum Game
by The Uncreative
Summary: In a world where games decide everything, what can a girl with awful luck and a zero percent win rate hope to accomplish?
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes:**

So um... This happened. And unlike every other story idea that floats in my head I have no idea where this came from. It just sort of happened. The idea for turning Halkgenia into a world similar to the game obsessed world of No Game No Life just seemed perfect. I mean come one, it was a perfect fit. It was shockingly easy to take Louise with her zero percent success rate at casting spells and translate that to a stunning zero win record. It just fit so well. I also just had a lot of fun writing this. Well, except for the chess game. That was tricky to write. For the first part of it I had a chessboard next to me and mapped out how the game was going to go. ... My god, was that a chore. The chapter was reaching a pretty decent length anyway, so I just did what you saw at the end there. No more chess. No more chess games for the rest of this story. We've got cards, word games, coin games, anything except chess games. Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with thinking up where the story goes from here. Look forward to future chapters! This is The Uncreative, signing off for now. See you next time, enjoy the story!

* * *

**Name: Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere.**

**Age: Sixteen years old.**

**Most Notable Bet: Once bet everything she owned (one wand, one shirt, one skirt, one mantle, one pair of socks, one set of shoes and one set of underclothes) on a coin flip.**

**Occupation: Is currently enrolled as a student at the Tristain Academy of Games.**

**Number of Recorded Victories since Attendance Began: Zero.**

**Prologue**

Louise eyed her hand very carefully. It was taking every ounce of willpower she had to not break down. A two of diamonds, a six of clubs, a jack of diamonds, a nine of hearts and an ace of spades. In other words:

"An awful hand," she whispers to herself.

"Oh? What's the matter Louise?" Her opponent, Kirche, asked. "Bad hand?"

"My cards are perfectly fine I'll have you know!" Louise yells. "Just gotta redraw these two."

Louise discards the nine and ace and draws two more cards. A ten of hearts and a three of spades. Louise doesn't bother hiding her disappointment and allows her forehead to collide with the table with a loud and painful thud.

"I fold," Louise announces.

"Isn't that a relief!" Kirche says, putting her cards back in the deck. "All I had was a pair of twos. Any hand could have beaten it really."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Louise shouts her frustrations into the table.

"Good to see that your luck still holds out, Zero," Kirche says with a smile.

"Shut up Kirche," Louise says, head still resting on the table. She sighs in frustration. "Okay, you won. What do you want?"

"Hmmm, I think I'll pack this favor away for later," Kirche says, taking out a notebook and writing something down. "A guaranteed favor has a lot of uses, doesn't it?"

"One more!" Louise declares. "One more game, I'll beat you this time, I swear!"

"You sure about that?" Kirche asks. "You don't have the greatest win ratio, darling."

"I have to win sometime!" Louise declares. "By this point all of my bad luck should have been used up, so I can only be lucky from this point on, right? That being the case, we'll play a game that's only luck."

"Coin flip?" Kirche asks.

"Coin flip," Louise confirms.

"Alright then," Kirche says. "And the rules?"

"What rules? Coin flips are coin flips!" Louise says. "Just grab a coin, flip it and call it."

"Any coin?" Kirche asks.

"Any coin, so hurry up!" Louise says. "If I win you have to tell everyone in the academy that I finally beat you in a game."

"And if I win..." Kirche puts a hand to her chin and starts thinking. "How about your panties?"

"M-m-my what?! What are you planning on doing with my underwear?" Admittedly Louise was not certain she wanted to know the answer to that question.

"Hmmmmm. Who knows?" Kirche says with a smile and a shrug, making Louise feel far worse about the bet. Kirche reaches into her pocket and pulls out a single gold coin. "Ready to play?"

Louise nods.

"Aschente," both parties declare. Kirche readies the coin and flips it into the air.

"Heads," Kirche calls.

"T-tails!" Louise begs, crossing her fingers. There may be a fifty percent chance of losing a coin toss, but that meant there was just as high a chance of winning. Louise prayed to every being she could think of that would help to tip the scales just ever so slightly in her favor. The coin lands on the back of Kirche's hand whereupon she covers it with her other hand.

"Ready?" Kirche asks.

"Just show it already!" Louise yells.

Kirche simply smiles somewhat sadly and shows the coin. Louise's mood instantly turns as sour as it could ever possibly turn.

"Looks like I win darling," Kirche says, still smiling.

"And I swore by the ten pledges so I can't go back on my bet." Louise sighs. She reaches under her skirt, removes her panties and hands them over to Kirche who promptly sticks them in her pocket. Louise shudders at the thought of her eternal rival now holding onto a pair of her underwear. Or maybe she was shuddering because a breeze just blew past and it was rather cold.

"A one in two shot at victory and I can't even pull that off," Louise bemoans her luck.

"There's your problem Darling," Kirche says. "You thought you had a fifty percent chance of victory when it was really zero the entire time."

"I-I'm not a zero!" Louise roars. Louise's imminent rage is temporarily subsided when she sees something shiny coming towards her. "Huh?"

She catches it on instinct and notices that it's the coin that was used in the coin flip just now. She sees the portrait of a king on one side, then turns it over and sees the portrait of a king. Meaning...

"A misprint?" Louise asks. "Both sides are heads so... A-ah! You cheated!"

"It's not cheating, it's playing within a very unspecified set of rules," Kirche corrects.

"It's against the spirit of the pledges if one side has an unfair advantage! You cheated!" Louise points at Kirche, accusing her. "That means the victory goes to me!"

"It was a completely legal move," Kirche defends. "I specifically asked before the match if we could use any coin and you said yes. Misprints are still coins, aren't they? Nothing about what I did was illegal and nothing about it was cheating."

"B-but... But..."

"Louise, want some advice from a good friend of yours?" Kirche asks.

"I would love some. Damn shame no one at the academy fits that description," Louise deadpans.

"How rude!" Kirche feigns sadness. "I'm hurt, Louise. Wounded, even. Let me help out a little. Every rule has a loophole. If you aren't certain that you can win a game that you can't afford to lose, then just play around with the rules a bit until they assure you victory. Get it?"

"If I can't win then cheat so much that it loops around into playing fair, that about right?" Louise asks.

"Not even close!" Kirche exclaims. "Oh, whatever. I'm going to go play some games against Tabitha. See if I can con her into betting to spend less time reading and more time with you or me."

"Why am I included in that?" Louise asks.

"She likes you, you know," Kirche responds. "Or at least spending time with you."

"Riiiiiight. I'll believe that," Louise says dryly. "I need to go. Thanks to a certain someone's bet I'm left without any spare underwear so I need to run into town and buy more."

"That was your only pair?" Kirche asks.

"You're not the only one who enjoys the luxury of a guaranteed win," Louise replies coldly before walking towards the stables to rent a horse.

It only took a few hours before Louise had made it into town. It would have taken slightly less, but traffic was unusually heavy.

"Why is everyone even heading towards town? Is today something special?" Louise wonders aloud. She puts a hand to her chin and thinks long and hard. "Oh! Right! The tournament to determine the next ruler is today."

Louise was very vocal in her disapproval of this particular system, but the opinions of one girl with a zero percent win rate meant very little. It was how the world worked, games decided everything. Personal grudges, debts, even territory and status. When the old king or queen died, a tournament was held and the winner became the next ruler, regardless of whether or not the previous ruler had any heirs. It was stupid, Louise thought, because it meant that there was only a very low chance of the winner being someone who was actually raised from birth to be ruler. There was a much higher chance of some poor, unprepared soul stumbling through their games and getting lucky in the end. Victories such as that were nearly the death of Tristain and why it was the smallest and weakest of the world's powers.

"Honestly, they should just let Henrietta take the throne," Louise says. "She's the old king's daughter, after all, she's been raised in that kind of environment. She'd be perfect for it. I wonder how she's doing?"

Louise thought about her old childhood friend for a bit. The young princess had tried her best to help Louise improve her gambling and playing skills to no avail, but Louise still appreciated the effort to this day.

"Maybe I'll write her a letter when I get back to the academy," Louise muses. "No guarantees it would make it through to her, but I wouldn't mind talking with her again. First thing's first. The reason I came into town in the first place."

Louise found a post she could tie her steed too and dismounted, taking extra caution when dealing with her skirt. Fortunately for her, the streets were packed shoulder to shoulder with people, so the odds of anyone noticing her were extremely low. Considering her history with low odds, she wasn't sure if she could feel confident about keeping her modesty.

Louise was able to worm her way past all the crowds and into a nearby clothing store. She bought several pairs of panties and made her exit as quickly as possible. Her next step was to find somewhere where she could change inconspicuously. The clothing store's changing rooms were a possibility, but she'd rather not be accused of trying to shoplift a decent pair of panties. ... For the fourth time.

Louise carefully worked her way through the crowd, but stopped moving when she heard some cheering. Curiosity overwhelmed her and she looked to see what everyone was so excited over. The royal tournament surely, but who was playing? Louise wormed her way through the crowds and saw the two players. They were sitting at a chessboard (_So that's what they're playing this time_, Louise observed.) with one side being very clearly dominated by the other. Well, domination is really all it can be called when one side has three queens, both rooks, a knight, a bishop and a king in play while the opposing side has two pawns and their king as their sole remaining forces. The winning player was clearly toying with their opponent and dragging it out. At least for a few more moves. It was really only a matter of how, not when, she would decide to go for the checkmate. A king flanked by a queen on both sides, as well as a rook right in front of him won't last much longer. The loser collapses on the table, and the winner stands, dusts off her dress and bows to the crowd, setting off energetic yells throughout the crowd.

"The winner!" The referee says, placing a small tiara upon her head. "Henrietta de Tristain!"

_Of course_, Louise thinks. _Chess was always her best game. She always was a very good tactician. Not that chess needs much tactics, it really is just kind of like a bigger version of tic tac toe. Just with, like... A million more moves available._

Henrietta basks in the glory for a while longer, clearly happy with what she's accomplished. Once she sees something in the crowd, her look of glee briefly turns into surprise, then genuine joy and happiness. She runs towards Louise and grabs her in as tight of an embrace as she possibly can.

"Louise! Is that really you?"

_I believe that's a prime example of questions that should be asked_ before _hugging someone_, Louise thinks.

"Y-yes," Louise says, awkwardly returning the hug. "Good to see you Princess. Um... P-perhaps we can go somewhere else?"

Henrietta is confused by the suggestion. Or rather was confused by the suggestion until she noticed all the strange looks the crowd was giving them.

"Go on, shoo!" Henrietta says, waving them off. "Tournament's over, go home everyone!"

Despite a few protests and general disappointment, the crowd did eventually disperse, leaving Louise and Henrietta alone. After a few more moments, Henrietta breaks the hug.

"Oh, Louise, it's been so long!" Henrietta says, smiling. "How have you been? Do you still have that streak or have you finally won a game?"

"It certainly has been a while, I've been fine, and no," Louise answers in order. "Still at zero wins."

"Really? But it's been so long! Surely you've managed to win something," Henrietta says.

"Nope. Nothing. Coin flips, poker, tic tac toe, games of skill, games of luck, nothing," Louise laments.

"What about chess?" Henrietta asks. "That's your best game, isn't it? I taught you everything I knew!"

"We were six. You taught me that the pony moves two up and one to the side, and that castling is a thing."

"Like I said, I taught you everything I knew!" Henrietta says. The two friends both share a laugh.

"Speaking of chess, that was the game for the tournament this time, was it?" Louise asks.

"Yes, it was," Henrietta says. "They were considering making it poker, since a ruler needs to be able to keep their cool when dealt even the most awful hand imaginable, sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally. They eventually decided on chess since it required more strategy and less luck. I think it was a great call. There are some people who could make brilliant rulers, but would get knocked out of the tournament easily thanks to horrible luck. This way who wins and who loses is a result of an actual competition. Plus it's a lot harder to cheat at chess then poker. There's millions of ways to cheat at poker without getting caught. It's slightly tougher when it comes to chess."

"I mean, I can't think of any way you could," Louise says. "What would you do? Move a piece slightly to one side? I don't know, seems far more trouble then it's worth. You said the tournament was over, right?"

"Indeed," Henrietta confirms. "What you just saw was the grand finals. She was a good opponent. I almost had to work hard against her. Unfortunately she failed to pay attention to my pawns and I was able to promote them right under her nose. If she had been more proactive with taking those pieces I may not have made it."

"Please, don't talk so badly about yourself," Louise says. "You surely would have found a way. So this means you're the queen, correct?"

"Thanks to my victory, I am now the rightful queen of Tristain," Henrietta confirms. "Unofficially anyway. Nothing is set in stone until the official crowning ceremony, and even after that I could always make a really stupid bet and lose the crown. Well, we'll have to work out the details for that later, but I am the queen, and word will spread quickly enough."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty," Louise says with a kneel.

"Louise, please. Don't be so formal," Henrietta says. "We're friends, are we not?"

"Friends or not, I am currently in the presence of royalty," Louise says.

"Okay, game time then," Henrietta says, pulling a coin out of her pocket. "Heads you stop being so formal, tails you can do what you want."

Without even waiting for Louise to reply she flips the coin. It lands on the back of her hand and she covers it. She slowly uncovers it, revealing it to have landed heads side up. Henrietta breathes a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god," she says. "The one time I was hoping for your awful luck to hold out."

"Y-Your Majesty!" Louise complains.

"Oh, relax, I'm just poking a little fun," Henrietta says with a giggle.

"Your Majesty!" A third voice calls.

"Ah, Cardinal Mazarin," Henrietta addresses the newcomer. "How are you doing today?"

"Your Majesty, I am terribly sorry to interrupt but we must get you back to the castle," the cardinal says. "We must begin planning the official ceremony at once."

"Oh, it's just that," Henrietta says, sounding very disinterested. "Cardinal, I realize that it's important, but being here with my closest friend whom I haven't seen in years is a bit more important to me at the moment. Can it wait just a little bit longer?"

"Hen- Your Majesty," Louise says, ignoring how red her face is thanks to Henrietta's comment. "By all means, attend to your duties. They are rather important. Tristain needs a good queen. It would simply not do to have your reign begin by shirking your responsibilities, would it?"

"No, it wouldn't," Henrietta pouts. "Fine, I should do that. On one condition: Louise, play a game with me. It's been so long since we just sat down and played a game together."

"Didn't we just flip a coin?" Louise asks.

"That hardly counts as a game!" Henrietta exclaims. "I mean an actual, official game. You still like chess, right?"

"I'm fond of it, yes," Louise confirms.

"Perfect!" Henrietta says in joy. She walks over to the table she was sitting at just a few minutes ago, takes a seat and starts setting up the board. Louise follows her lead and sits across from her.

"Cardinal, would you mind being the referee?" Henrietta asks. "It just wouldn't be official without one."

The cardinal looks ready to protest, but instead sighs deeply.

"If it will get you back to the castle sooner, then very well. I'll play along, Your Majesty," the Cardinal tells her.

"Perfect!" Henrietta says joyfully. "For simplicities sake, let's just use the official tournament rules. I can't stand speed chess, or those other inane variations."

"Y-your Majesty!" The Cardinal interrupts. "You realize that tournament rules means-"

"Hush Cardinal," Henrietta says. "I know what I'm doing. It'll be fine. Does that sound okay Louise?"

"Um... It would, but I didn't actually play in the tournament so-"

"It's okay, I understand," Henrietta says with a reassuring smile. "It's simple. It's just normal chess, really. We have the same number of pieces, set up in the standard placing. Take as much time as you need to make a move, there's no time limit, though this also naturally means that you can't take any moves back. All moved pieces are final. Castling, en passant and promotion are all fair game."

_Oh perfect, I can use my six year old self's knowledge to win it_, Louise thought.

"Understand?" Henrietta asks.

"Understood," Louise responds.

"Very well. Aschente."

"Aschente."

"You're playing white, so you may go first," Henrietta tells her.

Louise thinks about her first move carefully and opt to play it safe by moving her leftmost pawn forward two spaces. Henrietta responds by making a mirror move, locking the two in a stalemate. Louise moves the pawn in front of her king forward one space, while Henrietta moves her queenside knight two forward and one to her left. Louise decides to move her queenside rook to directly behind her first pawn. Henrietta moves the pawn directly in front of her queen forward, freeing either her queen or bishop to move in the future. Louise's queenside knight moves up and to the right, while Henrietta moves her bishop into position to take Louise's queen. Louise doesn't seem to notice, and moves her rightmost pawn forward once, putting it in a position to take the bishop should Henrietta not move it. Unfortunately she does, and takes Louise's queen.

"Ah!" Louise cries out.

"It pays to always be attentive to every piece, not just your own," Henrietta lectures Louise. "The entire game can be won or lost due to a simple careless mistake."

"Y-yeah but... But now I can do this!" Louise says, moving her knight from earlier to take the bishop.

"Congratulations, you took my bishop. Was it worth losing your queen?" Henrietta asks, slightly mocking Louise's less then stelar start.

"Of course!" Louise declares. "I don't even need a queen to win! I'm fine without one!"

"I'm sure you are," Henrietta says. "I was just checking to make sure that was intentional."

"O-of course it was!" Louise claims. "I never make a single move without meaning too! This is all part of my grand strategy! You'll see!"

"I certainly hope so," Henrietta says with a smile.

_I'm sorry Louise_, Henrietta thinks. _Even against a friend I'm not willing to go easy. Mercy is never a good thing to make a habit of handing out. Plus I need to end this quickly to keep all the people at the castle happy. Hmmm, what would be the best way to finish this? Perhaps I should wait a few more turns, start getting a read on her play style. It'll be far easier to trap her pieces once I figure out how she thinks. Go ahead Louise, I'll let you get a few moves in just to see how well you plan this out._

Henrietta moved her right rook one space to the left and waited for Louise's move.

_Um... Maybe I can castle? No, that won't work. It won't let me do anything, and I can't even do that yet._ Louise was confused. She settled on moving her rightmost pawn.

Henrietta moves her second from her right pawn forward twice.

_Perfect_, Henrietta thinks. _There's a clear line between this pawn and her bishop. Once she moves and takes it all I need to do is capture the bishop with my rook. A pawn for her bishop seems good to me._

Louise looks at the state of the board and draws a connection between those two pieces with her gaze.

_I could get her pawn with bishy_, Louise thinks. _Would that be a good idea? I don't want any of her pawn promoting so... I'm gonna do it._

Louise moves her hand to grab a piece and Henrietta smirks. Louise moves her pawn and captures the one Henrietta just moved.

"Eh?" Henrietta is confused.

"I was going to take it with Bishy, but Leopold seemed far more useful for the task," Louise says.

"... You name your chess pieces?" Henrietta asks.

Louise blushes intensely. "I-It's just a habit! I was six when I started and it's just stuck with me."

"Louise."

"Yes?"

"What's the queen's name?" Henrietta asks, completely serious.

"... Her name's Louise."

Henrietta starts laughing hysterically, and even the Cardinal is stifling some chuckles.

"Sh-shut up!" Louise yells. "I was six! Didn't everyone want to be a queen or king at that age? J-just focus on the game!"

Henrietta is brought down from her laughing fit instantly as she analyzes her situation.

_Right, Louise avoided my trap. I can't say I didn't expect it, that was an option but I was certain I had caught her with that when she saw she could take it. A-ah! Her pawn can take my knight! I can stop that with my rook, but then she's free to capture it. Clever girl, has she really gotten that good at this game since we last played?_ Henrietta began thinking about every move she could make even harder.

_Um... What do I do now?_ Louise was helplessly lost.

Henrietta decided to risk it and capture the pawn with her rook. In the grand scheme, the knight could be far more useful for trapping the enemy king. She could afford to lose one rook. And lose one rook she did, as Louise moved and took it with her bishop. It was at this point that Henrietta mentally slapped herself.

_I'm so stupid! I just could have moved the knight back into position! I didn't have to lose my rook! What a stupid mistake. You're a queen Henrietta, you can't make stupid mistakes! I can't even move the knight now because my king will be in check! I'm so stupid! Wait, I think I can save it._

Henrietta moved her king right next to the horse. If Louise took the knight then her own bishop would be lost. Louise though long and hard about it and decided that he runs away lives to fight another day, choosing to move her bishop down right three squares.

_Good move_, Henrietta mentally congratulates her opponent. _Sometimes defensive is the best move, as I should clearly learn. Don't get too cocky though, the real game starts right now! Get ready Louise! I won't go easy on you!_

_I hope this game ends soon_, Louise thought to herself. _It's far breezier then it should be._

The game did not end soon. It went on for another forty five minutes give or take. Henrietta was left with her king, three pawns, a knight, and a bishop. Louise was left with a king (she called him Henry and he had yet to get off his throne, so to speak), her rook, (Galahad), one pawn that was dangerously close to the end of the board (Geoffrey), and her light bishop (Bishy).

"I'll give you this Louise," Henrietta begins, "you are certainly a rather frightening opponent. To bring me down to this little manpower whilst avoiding every trap I've set up for you is truly astounding. Not many can claim that. How befitting of my best friend."

"Eh? You've been laying traps?" Louise asks. "You can do that in this game? I thought all you did was move the pieces around."

"N-no, I mean like using pieces of bait to get you to make a bad move and then I can capitalize on it," Henrietta explains. "Are you telling me you never noticed?"

"Not once," Louise admits. "I thought you just weren't taking the game all that seriously since the tournament's over."

"Back with the pawn that you were supposed to take with your bishop but captured with your pawn instead?"

"Why wouldn't I use the pawn, it was right there."

"The bishop that was going to take your rook? It was supposed to move one left so my other bishop could have gotten it."

"Why wouldn't I move the rook back to it's old spot? It was nice and safe in the corner."

"When my queen had your king in check. You were supposed to block with another piece or move."

"Isn't it easier to just take the queen?"

"You're impossible," Henrietta says, her forehead hitting the table and rattling all the pieces. She starts laughing not long after. "I suppose that's half the fun. I must say, this is the most enjoyment I've gotten from a game in a long time. Shall we begin the climax?"

"Gladly," Louise says. "Your move, I believe."

Henrietta ponders, then moves her king forward and right one, putting in line with her two pawns at her leftmost edge of the board. _Hmm, not a perfect place, but it should work. If nothing else the pawns can make for good meatshields._

"A-ah! Finally!"

"What is it Louise?" Henrietta asks.

In response Louise grabs her rightmost rook and king and moves them, swapping them around.

"Castling!" Louise declares proudly, puffing her flat chest out for bravado. "Now Sir Galahad has you in check!"

"Indeed he does," Henrietta says, smiling at her friend's name for her piece. "Hmmm."

_I could simply move to the right, but the rook can follow me and get me trapped at the other end of the board. Perhaps I should retreat behind the pawn shield I just set up. Then I can use my bishop and put her king in check so she won't be able to pursue me immediately and I'll have more time to set up a proper exit strategy. Let's do that._

Henrietta moves her king back and left once, placing it firmly behind her pawn. Her king is now stuck in the back row, with it's only movement option being to the left once more space.

_That should be safe for now. Even if her rook chases me down it would be close enough for my king to take. But what do I do next? Hmm, I'll put her king in check next move, but what then? _Henrietta wonders._ Perhaps I should move this other pawn move forward so I have an escape route should things not turn out spectacularly. After that I should have the knight guard one of the pawns so I can get it to the other side of the field and turn it into a queen. Doing that would also allow me to put her king in check provided she doesn't move it. This pawn here is only two moves away from the other side so it should be perfectly able to make it. Alright, so next turn I'll move my bishop, then my knight to provide cover then being my pawn's march to promotion. That should wo-_

"Check," Louise announces.

"E-eh? Excuse me?" Henrietta asks, having been shaken from her mental preparation.

"Check," Louise repeats, pointing to the queen she has placed on the final rank.

"Where did that queen come form?!" Henrietta asks. "Didn't it die in the beginning of the game?"

"She did," Louise says. "My pawn was only one space away from promoting though. I thought you would have noticed. Wait, is this a trap? You're luring me into making a mistake?"

_That's doesn't matter now Louise_, Henrietta thinks._ I can't move my king further inward, that's just moving to the left and doesn't actually allow me to escape her queen. I'll just move forward right and... W-wait a minute. If I move forward right and out of her queen's range then her rook will get me. N-no problem, I'll just take out her queen right now. What do I have that can do that? Not the pawn, and the knight's in no position to do that. She's on a light space and my only bishop left is dark. Th-that means..._

"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-checkmate," Henrietta forces the word out.

"Wh-what?!" Louise exclaims. "How?! How'd you get me?"

"No Louise," Henrietta says darkly. "Not you, me. I'm in checkmate. I can't do anything. If I move my king left or right then your queen gets me. If I move in my only other available direction, forward right, then your rook gets me. And I don't have any pieces that can take out your queen. It's my loss."

"Th-that means... Means..."

A huge smile, far brighter then any smile Henrietta had ever seen, crosses Louise's face. She gets out of her chair and starts hopping up and down in joy.

"I did it! I did it! I won! I finally won! I'm not a zero anymore! I finally won a game!" Louise starts exclaiming at the top of her lungs. "Yeeeeeeesss!"

"Your- ahem. Henrietta," the Cardinal corrects. "You understand-"

"I do," she confirms. "Tournament rules, and I swore by the ten pledges so there's no way for me to get around it."

Henrietta walks over to Louise, who is still bouncing and shouting about how happy she is and how she can't wait to tell her family all about it. Henrietta reaches up, grabs the tiara that was recently placed on her head. She places it on Louise's head, who promptly stops bouncing.

"Eh?" Louise is confused.

"All hail Queen Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere," Henrietta says, adopting a kneeling stance once she finishes.

"... Eh?" Louise is helplessly lost.

"Louise, we played using the official tournament rules," Henrietta explains, still kneeling. "The rules say that the loser is expelled from the tournament, no rematches or redoes allowed, and whoever is ultimately left at the top is crowned ruler. That was to be me, since I won the tournament. However, I made a mistake and challenged you using those rules and I lost. As such, provided you don't make the same mistake I did, you are to be crowned queen of Tristain. Congratulations Louise."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty," Cardinal Mazarin says as well. "We should be off. They will be expecting the queen-to-be any second now. We need to begin planning the crowning ceremony and hope that something like this doesn't happen again."

"... Eeeeeeh?" Louise has been broken.

**Name: Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere.**

**Age: Sixteen years old.**

**Most Notable Bet: Once played against her childhood friend, the soon-to-be queen, with winner taking the crown.**

**Occupation: Was enrolled as a student at the Tristain Academy of Games.**

**Number of Recorded Victories since Attendance Began: One.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Notes:**

Hey, we're finally back! Alright, no games this chapter, just prepping Louise to actually become ruler of humanity. It also served as a great opportunity to tell the audience both about the world, and how this story will work. Six kingdoms, six story arcs. There's a lot I really want to talk about concerning each of the different kingdoms, but we'll get to all that important information when we actually hit that kingdoms story arc. So for now, we get to focus on Tristain, the last realm humanity has any control over. What was once the most powerful kingdom was whittled down through centuries of awful rulers and other kingdoms teaming up against it. Despite humanity's best efforts, it's still a kingdom and relatively stable. One more bad ruler could tip that scale and through the entire kingdom into complete anarchy that the other five kingdoms could scoop up.

Deciding which race goes to which kingdom was fun. So, for those coming in from the No Game No Life side who may not be familiar with Familiar of Zero, Familiar of Zero takes place on the continent of Halkegnia which is split into various different countries/kingdoms. Albion isn't really one of those kingdoms, it's a floating continent and because it's a floating continent they got the Flugels. The Elves also held a sizable portion of land, though I don't recall if their kingdom had a name. So what I did was instead of giving every race a kingdom which would result in sixteen different story arcs that I don't have the patience or attention span to write, I took the kingdoms of Halkegnia and simply turned their population into a race from NGNL. I'm really looking forward to writing about those kingdoms, but for now we're stuck with humans.

Anyway, I don't really think I have much else to talk about. See you all next time.

**Chapter 1**

Louise and Henrietta sat in relative silence during the trip back to the castle. Louise wanted to say something, but the air in the carriage was thick with a feeling of awkwardness.

"Um… So, what about the academy?" Louise finally asks. "Do I just, not go to school anymore?"

"As long as royal politics don't get too hectic, feel free to do whatever," Henrietta says, not actually looking at Louise. "Tristain's a small kingdom, the royalty is expected to reassure the people that everything's fine, rather than actually do anything."

"I know Tristain isn't a particularly powerful nation, but are we really in that kind of situation?" Louise asks.

"You'll learn all about Tristain's situation when you start your queen tutoring, or whatever it's called," Henrietta says dismissively. "Even if you miss some important bits you'll pick it up on the job."

"O-Okay. Um… Henrietta, are you upset?" Louise asks.

"Not at all," Henrietta says. "I'm not mad at all that I had the one thing I've wanted since I was a child watching Father try his best to keep this kingdom together was just taken away from me because my best friend got lucky."

"O-O-Oh… I-I'm sorry," Louise says quietly.

Henrietta sighs deeply.

"No, I'm sorry, that was awfully rude of me," Henrietta says. "Louise, I'm not mad at you. I'm just… I guess I'm just a bit saddened. I was looking forward to this day for most of my life. I really wanted to be queen, I wanted to continue my father's work and make this kingdom great again. Well, I suppose the gods had different ideas about who should be queen."

"I can't be queen," Louise says. "This world and its rules revolve around games. The chess game was the only game I've ever won. All I'll do as a queen is lose and lose and lose, and we'll all be in an awful situation."

"Louise, don't say things like that," Henrietta says. "You beat me, didn't you? Whether it was skill or luck, it was still a victory. I'm confident that you won't have any trouble being queen."

"At least there's one person in the world who has confidence in me," Louise says.

The conversation stopped after that. Not too long afterwards, their carriage arrived at the castle. Henrietta hopped out of the carriage, followed by Louise. As soon as they entered the castle they encountered one of the maids.

"Good afternoon, Your Highness," the maid says. "I trust your day was pleasant?"

"Fine Siesta, it was fine," Henrietta says. "Oh, and it's not 'Your Highness.'"

"You are the late king's only daughter, and most favored to win the crown," Siesta replies. "Considering you're back that can only mean the tournament is over, right?"

"Well, yes it is but… Um… How to put this… I lost."

"… Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Henrietta says. "I didn't win the crown."

"No I heard you, but what you just said didn't make any sense," Siesta says. "You lost? You, the almighty, undefeated Henrietta who has never come even close to losing a game before? The person who at age ten took on nine different champions and beat them at their own games at the same time?"

"Nine different champions?" Louise asks.

"Chess, Poker, Go Fish, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, Rummy, War, Spades and Black Jack," Henrietta says.

"Lot of card games," Louise notices.

"Assuming I couldn't become queen, chess champion and professional card player were always my fallbacks," Henrietta says. "Good thing I kept those options open, I suppose."

"Your Highness, who is the pink haired girl?" Siesta asks.

"Oh, this is Louise," Henrietta says. "She's my dear childhood friend."

"Really?" Siesta asks. "It's a pleasure to meet a friend of her highness. My name is Siesta, I'm Her Majesty's personal maid."

"Nice to meet you," Louise responds.

"Also she's the one who beat me, so she's the queen now," Henrietta adds.

"… This little shrimp is supposed to be the queen?" Siesta asks.

"Sh-shrimp?!" Louise exclaims. "I mean I'm not as tall as some other people my age, but I'm just a late bloomer! My growth spurt's just around the corner!"

"I hope that means you'll grow a few feet and cup sizes within the next few minutes," Siesta says. "I don't think anyone's keen on the idea of a child taking on the throne. At least try to trick people into thinking you're somewhat mature."

"Siesta, play nice," Henrietta says. "Louise is not only my best friend, she's the queen now."

"Of course, milady," Siesta says before turning to Louise. "Well, since you are the new queen, I suppose I should show you all the important rooms you'll be staying at. Any requests for where you would like to visit first, shrimp?"

"I'm not a shrimp," Louise grumbles. "Um… How about the royal dressing rooms?"

"Are you really that materialistic that your first action as queen is to try on all the fancy clothes?" Siesta asks. "That's just pathetic."

"N-not even! I just need… Um… Well I was doing some shopping before I ran into Henrietta, and than I became Queen and I lost my bag in the kerfuffle so I just wanted to change into something a bit more comfortable than my school uniform."

"Of course, your shrimpliness," Siesta says. "Though I doubt we'll find anything that will actually fit you, Henrietta got rid of her baby clothes a long time ago."

"Henrietta, as queen can I command her to not be so mean?" Louise asks.

"Technically yes, but that doesn't mean she has to listen to you," Henrietta says. "No, you can't have her arrested for treason if she doesn't obey that command."

"I wasn't going to," Louise defends herself.

"Come along, Shrimp," Siesta says. "Regardless of my personal feelings, I am required to assist you. I'll give you a small tour on the way to your room. Your belongings will eventually be in there once someone retrieves them from the academy."

"Eventually? Do I need to actually ask someone to go get them for me?" Louise asks.

"Probably, because I'm sure not going to do it," Siesta says.

"She's certainly a keeper," Louise says to Henrietta.

"She just takes a while to warm up to you," Henrietta tries assuring her friend. "That is something you should do though, ask a servant to retrieve your belongings. Do you have anything back there you would want someone to retrieve?"

"Clothes, and books to continue my studies, I guess," Louise says.

"Louise, this is the royal castle," Henrietta says. "We have a library the size of the academy itself. We have tailors at the ready to give you any set of clothes you could want. We're talking about if there's anything sentimental or personally important to you."

"I really do kind of want my stuff back," Louise says. "I kind of liked all of it. I guess I'll talk with someone a bit later. Siesta, would you be so kind as to… take me on that tour?"

"Very well," Siesta says. "As I said just a minute ago, come along, shrimp."

Louise and Henrietta followed Siesta as she led them on what some would possibly consider a tour of the castle.

"There's a kitchen down there, but unless you're a glutton and plan on growing a few sizes in the worst way possible, you likely won't be spending a lot of time there," Siesta says.

_Is she really a maid here?_ Louise wondered to herself. _She seems so unprofessional._

"And down here is the maid's living quarters," Siesta says, pointing down a hallway. "Since you are supposedly at that age where hormones start kicking in, though you could have fooled me with that body, I will have you know that the maids here are exclusively female, so unless you swing that way you won't find love down that hall."

"I'm supposed to be a queen, why would I be looking for love?" Louise asks.

"For babies, of course," Siesta responds. "Because as we all know, it's important for the king or queen to have an heir and have that heir raised almost from birth to take up the crown only for some lucky brat to swoop in and steal it. It is a tradition you know."

"Oh, well now I don't feel as bad," Louise says dryly.

"Is it really a tradition?" Henrietta asks, the sarcasm from both sides flying right over her head.

"No milady, it was merely a jest," Siesta says. "Come along, the tour shall continue."

After a stop at the royal baths ("This is the only time I'll ask you not to be like Henrietta. Please spend less than three hours a day in the baths."), the royal library, ("The books are enchanted and will come if you call out their name, so for once you being a shrimp doesn't matter that much."), and the war room, ("It's really just a big table used for board games and the maids' Thursday night poker tournaments."), Siesta had felt that they had covered the important rooms. Louise felt like she hadn't learned anything important. Since half of the courses at the academy were related to games, it was a feeling she was intimately familiar with, so she didn't say anything.

"And here we are at your royal quarters," Siesta announces as she approaches one final door. "Any questions?"

Louise raises her hand.

"Don't worry, I don't have any insults prepared for you regarding this room," Siesta says.

Louise lowers her hand.

"Very good," Siesta says. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go inform people more important than me that the brat who is to be crowned is here and ready to start learning about her coronation."

"Thank you for your help, Siesta," Henrietta says.

"Anything for my lady," Siesta says with a smile and curtsey before departing.

"She hates me," Louise says, once the maid was out of earshot.

"She doesn't hate you," Henrietta says. "Well, she doesn't hate you that much. I'll apologize in her stead. I don't know why, but she's intensely loyal to me, so I imagine it must have been hard for her to hear that she has to listen to someone else now."

"I guess that makes sense," Louise says. "Well, I don't like her much anyway, so I'm not too broken up about it. Hey, Henrietta."

"Yes L- I mean, Your Majesty?" Henrietta amends her statement.

"Stop that," Louise says. "We're friends, aren't we? Just Louise is fine."

"Very well. Yes, Louise?" Henrietta amends her amendment.

"What's going to happen to you now?" Louise asks. "I mean, you lived here all your life because you were the princess, right? What happens now that I stole the crown?"

"I grab a few coins from my personal savings, head for the nearest inn and work things out from there," Henrietta admits.

"You're getting kicked out?!" Louise exclaims.

"I'm no longer royalty, I have no place in these halls," Henrietta says. "The only reason I came with you today was to help you get your bearings. Now that I'm not needed, I'll be leaving before dark."

"Absolutely not!" Louise says. She prepares to says something, but stops herself when she comes up with an idea. "Okay, let's play a game. I'm going to flip a coin. Tails, you can leave like you just said you would, but heads means you get to stay in the castle."

"Louise?!" Henrietta is surprised.

"I'm sure we can get a guest room cleared out, or get you a second bed in my room or something," Louise says. "Sound fine?"

"… Very well, I'll play. Aschente."

"Aschente," Louise declares. She reaches into her skirt pocket and pulls out a single gold coin. She flips it and lets it land on the back of her hand.

"Heads," Louise notes with a smile.

"Indeed," Henrietta says, sounding somewhat relieved. "Thank you Louise, for allowing me to stay in my home."

"I plan on being a benevolent queen," Louise says smugly as she puts the coin back in her pocket. "I'll only crush those I feel deserve it. Everyone else gets ponies and cake."

Henrietta giggles, but notices something.

"Hey Louise, you just won," Henrietta says.

"Yes, I did, and that means you have to stay at the castle," Louise responds.

"No, I mean, you just won another game," Henrietta says. "This means you just won two games in a row."

"H-huh? Oh, yeah… I suppose I did," Louise says, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"That's great!" Henrietta says excitedly. "I'm so proud of you! Have the gods finally noticed your luck and decided to pay you back and give you some good luck?"

"C-could be," Louise says. "Who knows?"

_She seems so happy that I finally shook off my bad luck_, Louise thinks to herself._ I suppose now I can't tell her I cheated by using Kirche's double headed coin._

"Hey, Henrietta, since I'm a bit new at this… queen… thing, how exactly am I going to learn more about that?" Louise asks her friend.

"What do you mean?" Henrietta asks.

"It's just that you've spent your whole life learning how to properly be queen, am I going to get the same classes?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Henrietta says, putting a hand to her chin and thinking. "Well, the teachers I had are supposedly the best of the best, and I imagine they'll simply start teaching you the important things.

"And how exactly is that going to work?" Louise asks.

"Basically, every single second of free time you have will be spent getting you prepared to rule," Henrietta says. "Normally you'd have classes on a less strict schedule, but normally the person who wins and becomes ruler is at least somewhat familiar with how ruling works."

"No free time at all?" Louise asks.

"Every second not spent ruling will be spent with the finest scholars we have, learning how to properly rule," Henrietta confirms.

"… Hey, I had an idea," Louise says. "What if we just had you teach me about this queen stuff? You know pretty much everything that those people would know, right?"

"Louise, I'm hardly a teacher," Henrietta says.

"You know more than I do," Louise says. "I'm sure you could teach me in ways that would make it far easier for me to understand."

"Hmmm… I do seem to recall that I would teach you a lot about games when we were younger," Henrietta says. "I think I could teach you. Yes, I can definitely teach you how to be queen! That way I can still pull my weight and earn my place in this castle!"

_That's what you were worried about?_ Louise wonders.

***The Next Day***

"Okay, time to begin your first class," Henrietta says.

"Before we do, I have a question," Louise says, raising her hand.

"Yes, student?" Henrietta asks, slipping into her teacher role quite well.

"Why are you wearing glasses?" Louise asks.

"I'm a teacher now, and teachers wear glasses," Henrietta says as she adjusts her spectacles. "Why else would most scholars wear them? It's a common sign of intelligence."

_It's a common sign of bad eyesight_, Louise thinks to herself.

"Anyway, first things first," Henrietta says. "What do you know about this world? I need to know where to begin with my lesson."

"The world is divided into six kingdoms," Louise begins. "Tristan, the land of humans, Germania, the realm of fairies, Gallia, the land of werebeasts, Romalia, the land of dhampirs, Albion, home of the flugels and finally, Alfheim, which is obviously home to the dragons."

"You joke, but reports continually come in that the elves have got the dragonia under their control," Henrietta says. "Anyway, you're completely correct. While there may be fifteen races in total, only six of them are powerful enough to still have a kingdom."

"No, that's wrong," Louise says. "There's sixteen races, not fifteen."

"ExMachina don't count," Henrietta says. "One hasn't been seen in millennia, so they're presumed extinct. You're right, they did exist at one point, but for now we assume there are only fifteen races. Each of the six kingdoms holds Race Pieces which are bestowed upon the leading representative of that kingdom. We, as humans, hold the Pawns, since we are the smallest and weakest kingdom. Germanians hold the knights since they are one rank above us, Gallia the bishops and so on. No matter how much of a kingdom's land you may own, you have not actually conquered the kingdom until you claim their Race Piece as your own."

"And what happens if one kingdom collects all the pieces?" Louise asks. "If one kingdom just decided to take over the world, what happens then?"

"Who knows?" Henrietta says with a shrug. "The last time it happened was six millennia ago, when the then current rulers of humanity successfully claimed every Race Piece. According to legend, which means very little after six thousand years of misinformation and rumor, you would get to challenge the one true god of games."

"Why would anyone want to do that?" Louise asks.

Henrietta shrugs again.

"Bragging rights?" she offers. "It's just an old legend, don't think about it too hard. The gods would never really care what we do, so don't think about it too hard. What's important about the Race Pieces isn't being able to challenge god, it's the right to rule that kingdom, like I said. Louise, once you are crowned queen and given our Race Pieces, you must never bet them under any circumstances. If you bet them and lose, than the people of our kingdom become nothing more than slaves to whoever hold them."

"… So no pressure," Louise says.

"None at all," Henrietta confirms. "Despite what many previous rulers may have thought, your goal isn't to conquer other lands, it's to make sure that the lands we have don't fall apart. Ruler after ruler has made the mistake of betting lands we can't afford to lose in desperate bids for expansion, and that's why we're such a weak kingdom. Please Louise, don't make the same mistakes they did."

"Well, you'll be here helping me, so I don't think I can fail that badly," Louise says.

"As royal adviser, I will do everything I can to make sure your rule is beneficial to everyone in Tristain," Henrietta confirms.

_I don't remember royal adviser ever being an actual position_, Louise thinks. _At least it means Henrietta will always be nearby to help._

"Anyway, continuing on," Henrietta begins her lesson again. "As stated, humanity is the weakest of all the kingdoms, but we are still a kingdom. Many races live in Tristain, with many individuals emigrating from their home kingdoms here. Do you know why that is?"

"Because we're awesome?" Louise offers.

"While that is a true statement, it is actually because Tristain is the only kingdom that offers such an option," Henrietta corrects. "Whether benevolent or tyrannical, none of the other kingdoms allow for members of another race to come to their kingdom and become an official citizen. They won't deport you on sight if you go there and you are allowed to live there, but you would not be able to enjoy any of the rights offered to it's own citizens."

"So why is Tristain different?" Louise asks.

"It's all thanks to the king and queen of six thousand years ago," Henrietta says. "Don't ask their names, it's been six thousand years and records of what exactly happened back then have long since vanished. All we know is that the king and queen united all of this world together under one banner and ushered in a golden age for this world. That idea of a world union is something that's been passed down since then, and it is why we allow anyone, no matter the race, to become a citizen of Tristain. Of course only humans can become a king or queen, it would be weird if a seiren became leader of humanity after all, but other than that all races have the same rights."

"Go humans," Louise cheers dryly.

"Indeed," Henrietta agrees. "However, the idea of a world union is something that has simultaneously elevated and doomed Tristain. While we enjoy things such as every race having equal rights, it has also caused many a ruler to attempt a world conquest to bring that union. Through various means, rulers have tried to unite all the races countless times. Considering we're barely a speck on the map compared to any of the other kingdoms, you can imagine how well that turned out."

"But we're still a kingdom, unlike most of the other races," Louise points out.

"That is true," Henreitta says. "We're certainly lucky enough in that we retain enough power to still be a kingdom. Do keep in mind Louise, should anyone challenge you for one of Tristain's Race Pieces and win, they can branch off and create their own kingdom. However, you're completely free to turn down any such bet and avoid that situation altogether. Under no circumstances should you bet the race pieces. We can't lose any of our kingdom unless we allow them the opportunity, understand?"

"Understood," Louise says. "If anyone wants to conquer us, we simply need to hide in our shell like a turtle."

"It's cowardly, but it ensures that our kingdom will live for another day," Henrietta says. "Once Tristain is clear of its own problems we can consider bidding for expansion."

"Problems such as," Louise prompts for Henrietta to continue.

"The Tristainian Nobility is… quirky," Henrietta decides on. "You know how it is. People get power, they start abusing it. I believe a study was done a few years back and noted that Tristain has the highest number of corrupt nobles, and the nobles that are corrupt are some of the worst in all the lands."

"… Oh," Louise says.

"And considering how corrupt the nobles are, you definitely need to watch yourself," Henrietta says. "People are always upset with the new ruler, usually since they had someone on their bankroll who didn't become king or queen, and considering your… lackluster win rate, it's not difficult for me to imagine that they'll be many attempts to trick you into giving up the crown."

"But the tournaments over and I technically won, right?" Louise says. "I thought that this was basically done?"

"The tournament is over, but as I've stated you can still lose the crown very easily," Henrietta says. "If Siesta, for example, were to challenge you to a game, with the crown going to the winner she could conceivably take the crown. You're free to deny such challenges, of course, but the possibility is always there."

"Then why don't you challenge me for the crown, beat me and become queen?" Louise asks.

"I already challenged you and lost," Henrietta says. "You can only compete for the crown once. That rule was put in place to keep someone from continually challenging the king or queen at games of luck until the chips fell differently and the king or queen lost. As such, once you have played for the crown and lost, even if the crown were to pass to someone else you can never play for it again."

"So I'm stuck as queen," Louise says.

"Unless you feel like whoever you would bet against could be a better queen than you, yes," Henrietta says.

"Brilliant," Louise responds.

"Indeed, but we don't have time to dwell on that, we have a lot of ground to cover," Henrietta says. "Your coronation is coming up soon, and I refuse to let you ascend to the throne without at least a rudimentary knowledge of our kingdom's politics. Now pay attention!"

That first lesson lasted for well over a week. The second lesson would have gone on for several more weeks, but the coronation was only a few days away, and thus the lesson had to be cut short, though Henrietta promised to pick up right where she left off once the more important stuff was taken care of.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Notes:**

So, here we have Louise's coronation. … Um… This was hard. I knew what I wanted to get across, but I had a hard time getting the right words. Louise's speech was so hard to right. I don't think I did a very good job on it, but I suppose it kind of fits Louise a bit.

This chapter was actually completely different at first. It was going to be before the coronation and focus on Louise learning a bit more about how to be queen. At one point Siesta, who isn't very fond of Louise as you recall, would challenge Louise and they would play a game. I think I was leaning toward a game of poker or something similar. Anyway, that wound up getting cut out because it didn't really do all that much for the story. There was also another important event in that chapter, but I can't talk about that one because it got moved to next chapter instead of being completely wiped. We'll get to that when we get to it. Anyway, I think that's about it. See you all next time!

**Chapter 2**

"I'm not ready for this," Louise says.

"What's there to be ready for?" Henrietta asks. "All you need to do is go out there, let them put the crown on your head and then say a few words. That's it."

"Or are you so inept that you can't even pull that off?" Siesta asks.

"I can pull it off!" Louise declares. "I just… I just need a bit to mentally prepare myself."

"You've got one minute," Siesta says. "After that, whether you're ready or not you're going out there. Tristain and humanity in general need a ruler they can rely on, so please don't screw this up for us. We've had enough awful rulers and while I know you'll probably be thrown on that list as well, please give at least a good first impression. I suppose it'll be hard to give a first impression when the audience won't even be able to see you. At least they won't see how badly you'll screw up."

"Thanks for the confidence," Louise says.

"Go ahead and prove me wrong," Siesta says. "It seems like they're getting ready to call you out. Go out there and give the greatest first impression possible."

"R-right! First impressions!" Louise tries to psyche herself up. "I'm heading out!"

"Best of luck Louise," Henrietta says with a smile.

"I wish you luck, your shrimpliness," Siesta says. "I'd say you need it, but considering what your luck normally is, I find that a worrying notion."

Louise ignores Siesta's remark and heads towards her coronation. When she was out of earshot, Henrietta turns to Siesta.

"Thank you, Siesta."

"For what?"

"For encouraging her," Henrietta says.

"I did no such thing," Siesta replies. "All I did was demean her, same as always. It's something I'm particularly good at."

"Of course, of course," Henrietta says.

While Henrietta and the maid were having that particular conversation, Louise was ready. Today was her coronation. She was wearing a super fancy royal dress, she had rehearsed and practiced countless times. With Henrietta giving her the rundown on what to do, and Siesta there to remind her every time she made a single mistake, the past week had been a very busy one as she worked endlessly to make sure she didn't make a single mistake. Considering all she really had to do was walk in, kneel and receive the crown it really is impressive how much time they spent rehearsing. They ran through several different scenarios (Raining heavily, too much wine the night before, too little sleep, etc.) that Louise was prepared for everything. Prepared for everything, that is, except for actually facing the crowd.

"And so, may I present the new queen of Tristain, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere!"

"Showtime," Louise mutters to herself. "Don't mess this up."

Louise steps forward out onto the platform and instantly freezes. It turns out, when the new king or queen of a kingdom is being crowned, many people show up to witness this event. Louise was prepared for that. What she wasn't prepared for was that it seemed like almost the entire population of Tristain had shown up that day and was waiting down below to see their new queen. Most of the crowd was comprised of humans since it was primarily a ceremony for humanity, though a few other races were present. Perhaps ninety five percent of the crowd was human and the remaining five was composed of a few other races. All of Louise's mental capabilities we overloaded by just how many people there were down there. At that moment Louise finally realized something. _I'm their queen. Every single one of their lives is in my hand now._

The weight of the realization caused Louise to fall to her knees. Considering that was exactly where she was supposed to be at the moment, it worked out well. Cardinal Mazarin retrieved the crown from it's resting spot and placed it on Louise's head, officially crowning her the new queen of Tristain.

The crowd below Louise began applauding their new ruler, with some grumbling about how they should have won the tournament and been crowned. The applause continued, even as one student noticed something.

"Hey wait a minute," the student said. "Isn't that the Zero?"

"Huh? Zero?" One of the people asks.

"It's Louise the Zero! That girl's never won a game in her life! What's she doing up there as queen?"

"What? Not a single game? How can someone like that be queen?"

"I don't know what you're worried about, she's perfect! Tristain hasn't had a ruler capable of winning a game for centuries!"

"At least the past rulers _could_ win a game, and just didn't. This girl is physically incapable of winning anything!"

Unrest slowly start spreading throughout the crowd as word about Louise's win-to-loss ratio began to spread. The applause had died out and was quickly being replaced with jeers. Louise was almost impressed with how quickly everyone's feelings turned from moderate acceptance to the hate she felt she deserved.

"Your majesty, it appears they are displeased," Cardinal Mazarin notes. "Perhaps we should skip the speech and retire into the castle."

Louise focused on getting her words straight. She worked on psyching herself up and pulled herself to her feat.

"HEY EVERYONE!" She yelled out to the crowd. The crowd's jeers slowly calmed down as they awaited their new ruler's first words.

"This should be good," one of Louise's classmates whispered to another.

Louise took a deep breath and prepared to begin. And so it would be recorded that Queen Louise's first action as ruler was to prostrate herself before her subjects. What little jeering was going on in the crowd immediately stopped and confusion ran rampant through the crowd.

"Y-Your Majesty, you absolutely should not bow before your people!" Cardinal Mazarin tells Louise. "Quickly, stand up!"

"I'm sorry!" Louise tells the crowd. "What Tristain needs right now is a strong, powerful, clever ruler who can guarantee their safety and comfort. What Tristain needs is someone who is smart enough to know which bets to take, which games to play, which people to win against and what lands to reclaim. Tristain needs someone who can help it prosper and reclaim at least a fraction of its former glory. I am not that ruler. I am an idiotic, hot-headed girl who has never won a game before I beat Henrietta and took the crown. Even a child with only a basic knowledge of Tristan's problems could tell you that I am the worst person you could have ascend to the throne."

As Louise continued her speech unrest continued growing in the crowd. It wasn't jeering or insults like before, so much as genuine concern. The crowd had begun to genuinely worry for their nation's future.

"However, none of that matters now," Louise declares as she stands up proudly. "From now until the day I die, I am your queen. It is my duty to make sure this kingdom prospers, and I will do everything I can to make sure that happens. I'm many things. A loser, a brat who can't win any game, a complete disappointment, those are all terms that can describe me. One phrase that currently cannot be used to describe me is 'a worthy queen.' Just because I can't call myself a worthy ruler now doesn't mean that I won't become one. I am going to commit every single cell in my body to making sure that I will become someone that Tristain can be proud to call their queen. I'm speaking to you not as your queen, nor as a girl with a zero percent win rate. I'm speaking to you as a fellow citizen of this great kingdom. I swear to you, I _will_ keep Tristain safe. I will do everything I can to make us a kingdom worthy of the respect that we once had. I swear to all of you, I will keep you all safe, and until Tristain is restored to it's proper glory, I will not lose!"

The confidence in Louise's tone was slowly starting to win people over, though many remained hesitant. Many previous rulers promised the same thing, victory and comfort. The same rulers who would bet lands they had no business betting, and had driven Tristain into the corner it was in. The same rulers who had previously promised glory and prosperity had driven their kingdom to poverty and insignificance. What made this new queen any different?

"How can I promise this?" Louise continued her speech. "How can I promise that I'll be able to bring to restore us to a state of relative respect? How can I promise you what several strong rulers could not provide? I can promise this because I am just like those previous rulers, astonishingly WEAK!"

The crowd is surprised by Louise's outburst. Did she just denounce all the previous rulers as weak? Even the great ones? Who was this girl to claim that they were all weak?

"You heard me!" Louise says. "Every single ruler humanity has ever had is WEAK! Never have we ever had a strong ruler. Not now, not before me, not even six thousand years ago! We are, and always have been weak! That is why we are as strong as we are!"

The crowd was now confused. Strength in weakness? What was this girl babbling about now?

"What many previous rulers failed to realize is that humanity as a species is weak," Louise says. "No, not just humanity. All of Tristain, be it humans, fairies, dwarf or whatever. Tristain is weak. That weakness has been our advantage that we've never used. We try to prove our dominance and fight our opponents on their level which just isn't something we can match. May I ask, could a human match a werebeast in a race? Could a dwarf fly higher than a flugel? Could a flugel swim better than a seiren? Of course not. So why have previous rulers attempted to face other races on their level? Our strength as a kingdom is to think differently. No, a human could beat a werebeast in a race, so how else could we win? No, a dwarf can't fly higher than a flugel so how can they use their own abilities? I'll say it again, our true strength is our weakness, and our ability to see things differently than the other kingdoms! We learn, we adapt, and we evolve until we finally win. That is the strength not just of humans, but of Tristain in general. That is why."

Louise takes a deep breath and stands as tall and proud as she can.

"THAT IS WHY! We, who are the weakest kingdom, will look back at those who look down on us and show them why we were once the most powerful kingdom! I, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, the weakest queen of the weakest nation, will show you the true strength of Tristain! As I said, I will not stop, I will not rest and I will not lose until Tristain is finally free from the looks of scorn and mockery that have plagued us for countless generations! I will personally remind every one of the other kingdom just why Tristain was the superpower it was! But more importantly, I will remind all of you just why the king and queens of old were looked upon with such respect! So, citizens of Tristain, be you human, fairy, werebeast or otherwise. I promise each and every single one of you that I will become a great queen. Not a strong queen, or a powerful queen. I will become a great queen that's worthy of being the ruler of Tristain. I promise, I will make this kingdom great again. Of that, you can be certain."

Her speech finished, Louise turns and walks back into the castle as the crowd burst into applause and cheers. Amidst the cheers was a single, young boy who was wearing a red beret with a yellow clover ornament on it. As the new queen walked away, the boy couldn't help but smile.

"It's been forever since there's been a fun ruler," he says. "I can't wait until we can play a few games together!"

***Later, in Louise's room***

"Louise that was amazing!" Henrietta exclaims. "I never thought you could pull off a speech that incredible!"

"There were some good points in that speech," Siesta admits. "It seems that the amount of charisma someone has isn't related to their height. That's some good information."

"I-I-I'm such an idiot," Louise said as she tried as best she could to disappear underneath her pillow. "Such an idiot, stupid stupid stupid!"

"Louise, what's the matter?" Henrietta asks. "You did great! The speech was wonderful!"

"It was the worst thing ever!" Louise says. "What was I even saying? We're strong because we're weak? What does that even mean? I'm going to bring Tristain to glory? I'm only queen because I got lucky! I shouldn't even be here! Oh god, Tristain is doomed and I'm the reason. I'm such an idiot."

"I do hope you're not expecting either of us to try and deny that statement," Siesta says. "At least you were nice enough to tell the populace what your royal plan is. Most rulers simply say some ego-inflating nonsense."

"What, restore Tristain to glory?" Louise asks. "How am I supposed to do that?! Okay, let's pretend for a second that I'm some prodigy who is completely incapable of losing."

"Don't we all wish that were true," Siesta says.

"Where do I even start with anything?" Louise asks. "We have such little territory that we can't afford to bet any. If we can't bet any territory, how are we supposed to get more? Am I just supposed to go up to Germania and say 'Hey, would you be so kind as to give us some land if I win this coin flip?' They'd never do that! I can't expand Tristain because we don't have any land to bet in return, but we can't get any land to bet with because we don't have any to start with! Where am I even supposed to start?!"

"Louise, you're not supposed to worry about expanding yet," Henrietta says. "Remember what I told you when we began your lessons?"

"Right, right, we have to clear up our own problems first," Louise says. "After all, who would want to live in a place that's full of corrupt… I got it!"

"Got what?" Henrietta asks.

"I just figured it out," Louise says. "Okay, the biggest problem that we'll run into when we begin expansion is that we don't have anywhere near enough land to actually bet. It's like walking into a casino with nothing but a few bronze coins, you won't be able to do anything."

"While correct, we're not talking expansion or casinos, please at least pretend you care about what Henrietta is talking about," Siesta says.

"I do care, and that's exactly it!" Louise says. "Like I said, what we'd be doing when we go to expand is walking into a casino with a few bronze coins. A few bronze coins probably won't get you much, right? So what we need to do is take those bronze coins and turn them into pure platinum!"

"Your shrinpliness, while alchemy is a very interesting application of magic, it is not currently at the level where we can transform a shrimp like you into a good ruler so please stop thinking too hard about it," Siesta says.

"We can't bet because all we have are a few provinces that nobody wants," Louise begins her explanation. "Like we were saying earlier, who would want any of our land when it's overrun with corrupt nobles and other influential parties abusing their power? So what we need to do is start cleaning up the corrupt parties and make all the Tristianian provinces such desirable places that they'd be worth far more than they are now!"

"Oh, I get it!" Henrietta says. "It doesn't matter if we don't have much land, if it's worth a lot then other kingdoms will be more than happy to start making plays for it, and that's when we can finally start winning some land back!"

"Exactly!" Louise says. "So that's our first goal, make Tristain a desirable land! Our first step towards that is cleaning up the nobility."

"As noble and reachable a goal as disinfecting a sewer," Siesta retorts.

"Siesta, I have a favor I need to ask of you," Louise says.

"Excuse me? You're actually asking me for something?" Siesta asks in shock. "A shrimp like you is asking the royal maid for a favor?"

"Siesta, I want you to see if you can provide me with a list of the most notable members of nobility," Louise says. "I want to investigate each and every single one of them and find out which ones are corrupt so that I can start weeding them out one by one."

"… I see," Siesta says. "Very well. I'll go talk to various members of the royal court and see what I can dig up. You owe me for this, shrimp."

"I won't tell the other maids that you cheat during the poker tournaments," Louise offers.

"You actually noticed?" Siesta asks, once again shocked by the new queen.

"I'm pretty good at noticing when someone's cheating," Louise says. "Unfortunately I'm usually focusing too hard on the game, so I can only do that once the game's over, so it never actually helps me."

"That's almost impressive," Siesta replies. "I'll get to work on your hitlist."

With that, Siesta bows and leaves the room. Henrietta turns to Louise and grins.

"I'm so proud of you," Henrietta says. "You'll make a great queen."

"D-don't say that, I haven't done anything yet," Louise tries to deny the compliment. "I still haven't figured out what to do once we actually find the corrupt nobles. I mean, what are we supposed to do, ask them politely to stop?"

"Louise, think about the ten pledges," Henrietta says. "Specifically pledge number six."

"Um… _Any bets made in accordance with the pledges must be upheld_ was it, I believe," Louise says. "So um… what does that have to do with anything?"

"It's simple," Henrietta says. "What you have to do is get them to agree to a game with the condition that if we win then they can no longer abuse their authority."

"That's good and all, but what if they either don't agree to the game, or agree, we win and then they keep being jerks?" Louise asks.

"Louise, you don't seem to understand just how powerful the pledges are," Henrietta says. "Once you swear by the pledges, they are absolute. If you make a bet and lose, you cannot go back on it under any circumstances."

"What happens if someone does?" Louise asks.

"Nothing, because you simply _can't_," Henrietta says. "The pledges are enforced by the one true god of games. It's not a matter of whether or not someone will actually play by them. You have no choice. If a corrupt noble swears by the pledges stating that he'll stop abusing his power if we win, and then we win, they have no choice but to stop abusing their power. It's how the world works."

"The pledges are really that powerful?" Louise asks. "I knew you were always supposed to follow them but I didn't realize you couldn't not follow them. That's.. that's crazy."

"So Louise, you don't need me to tell you this, but you need to be careful about what you bet," Henrietta warns her friend. "A bad bet could have disastrous consequences. Even something as simple as 'a favor' can be turned around and used for anything."

"Louise, you haven't made that bet before, have you?" Henrietta asks.

"No, of course not."

"That doesn't exactly make me believe you," Henrietta says with a sigh. "Well, let's hope whoever won that bet doesn't come to collect. We're not in a position where we can afford that at the moment. Once we're more stable maybe we can do something small."

"Let's ignore that and focus on the corrupt nobles," Louise says. "Specifically, how we're going to convince them to start betting."

"Right, of course."

Louise and Henrietta spent the next several hours discussing plans and strategies for how to go about their operation. They couldn't afford to put anything less then their full effort behind it. The future of Tristain could very well well hinge on how successful their plan is.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Notes:**

Okay, first thing's first. I knew there was something I forgot to mention last chapter, so let's start with that. Yes, Louise's speech from last chapter was inspired by Sora's speech from the original NGNL show. That was intentional. Not intentional in the "I'm totally going to plagiarize the source material because I'm an uncreative bastard." I mean, I am an uncreative bastard, but that's not why the speech was like that. There are actual in-story reason why Louise gravitated towards those topics with her speech. We'll get to those in good time.

Anyway, on to this chapter. First, mister Robespierre. He probably won't be showing up again, you can forget about him. He was just supposed to be a little fillerish guy to fill out the beginning of this chapter until we got to real meat and potatoes. Anyway, it did give me a chance to sort of show what Louise's play style will be. Not to say she's going to cheat her way through every game, that wouldn't be a fun main character to root for. I just kind of wanted to get across the fact that Louise isn't as strong a player as most others, so she has to get a bit more creative when it comes to winning games.

Anyway, the real meat of the chapter was the game against Tet. First thing's first, who should have won that match? Well, Tet would win because he's a significantly better player than Louise, but he was playing to lose because he wanted an excuse to give Louise the book and key. However, Louise didn't win because she wasn't bothering at all and was more focused on the conversation. Basically, there was no other way that battle could have ended in any way other than a draw. As for the book and key, I don't think it's that hard to figure out what's in the book. What's the key for then? …

Anyway, I think we covered everything this time. See you all next chapter!

**Chapter 3**

Two weeks after her coronation, Queen Louise was hard at work cleaning up the Tristain nobles. "Hard at work" in this case meaning Louise would dictate the rules of the bet and Henrietta would actually play the game. The assignment of jobs was Siesta's idea considering she wasn't very confident in Louise's ability to consistently win such important games. Since neither party disagreed, this was the plan they went with. This night, however, they had split up in order to cover more ground. Henrietta had gone to deal with a noble who was selling his maids to the highest bidder, while Louise and Siesta dealt with a different target. Louise and Siesta were walking down the street to where their target lived.

"Hi Queen!" a seiren calls out to Louise as she swam down the waterway. "Nice to see you."

"Pleasure to see you as well," Louise says with a smile. The seiren giggles and swims off. "Siesta, whose idea was it to make it so that each road has those waterways? It's pretty smart."

"I believe that would be King Henry," Siesta says. "Around 3000 years ago it finally occurred to him that for all our talk about being an all inclusive kingdom, we were making it impossible for seirens to live here, due to the fact that we're a bunch of land based races. He had a construction team hollow out half of each road and fill it with water, as well as create several seiren hotspots, so to speak, so that they would have places to live. After all, it's kind of hard to be a citizen of Tristain if you'd die the second you set foot here."

"I see," Louise says, nodding to herself. "That makes sense. I knew seirens could become citizens of Tristain, but I could never figure out how that worked. I probably should have asked Naga when I had the chance."

"Naga?" Siesta asks. "Perhaps someone was brain damaged enough to want to be friends with someone like you?"

"Not how I would have worded it, but yes we were friends," Louise says. "She was a seiren I played with a lot when I was a little kid. We would see who could hold their breath underwater the longest and things like that. You know, kid stuff."

"You tried to hold your breath underwater longer than a species that can breathe underwater," Siesta notes. "Wow, you really are an idiot."

"I'll admit, not my smartest moment," Louise says. "I've gotten pretty good at holding my breath though. I think my personal best for underwater was around 18 minutes. Above water is less impressive, only around five minutes."

"You can hold your breath for 18 minutes?" Siesta seems stunned.

"It's a pretty useless talent," Louise says. "Useless, but I'm proud of it. I still practice from time to time, just to make sure I never get too far out of practice and lose the one thing I'm somewhat good at."

"Well congratulations, now you can challenge these corrupt nobles to see who can hold their breath longest," Siesta says. "Considering how many of them seem to ready to strangle you when you're done meeting with them, holding your breath is probably a useful talent."

"Being strangled is different from holding your breath," Louise points out. "Anyway, corrupt nobles. What can you tell me about the one we're going to talk to?"

"Let's see," Siesta says as she flips open her notebook and looks at her list. "Looks like Count Maximilien Robespierre. Somewhat of a politician, pushing for various laws and policies be put into place in order to benefit the people. Or so he says. There's been talk of him only supporting policies that benefit him and the people who pay him to support those laws, as well as turning a blind eye to crimes if payed well enough. I also hear that anyone who tries to bring any of that up or opposes him is 'taken care of,' so there's that as well. Not killed or hurt, obviously, that's not allowed, but put in a place where they won't cause trouble for him. He's also been involved in some less then savory political power plays in the past. My favorite is this one here, when he tried to steal the crown from Henrietta's father. They played each other in a completely one sided poker game. The card dealer was on Maximilien's payroll, so the deck was cut in ways that would make it impossible for Henrietta's father to score even a weak hand. The king won anyway, because he was the greatest card player ever. To further rub his victory in Maximilien's face, he exposed the cheating and shamed the poor man. Maximilien lost his standing and only just recently started gaining it back. Glad to see that we're here to tear it all away from him once again."

"We're not going to strip his title, we're going to make him worthy of having it in the first place," Louise says.

"Let's get this done quickly, I imagine Henrietta is probably already done with the nobles she was tasked with taking care of," Siesta says.

"Right, let's take care of this," Louise says, approaching Maximilien's house. She approaches the door to his manor and knocks. A maid opens the door and seems surprised to see Louise standing there. "Good evening. Would Count Maximilien happen to be home?"

"Allow me to go bring him," the maid says. She disappears into the manor and returns after a few minutes with the Count in question.

"Good evening, Count Robespierre," Louise says.

"Good evening, Your Majesty," the Count says. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"I simply had some things I wished to discuss with you," Louise says. "May I come inside?"

"Of course," Robespierre says, allowing Louise and Siesta into his manor. He has his maid show Louise and Siesta to his dining room where they take a seat. "So, your highness. What is the matter that you wished to discuss with me?"

"Well," Louise says, looking for the best way to begin. "I simply wished to discuss a rumor or two I had heard recently."

"What kind of rumor?" Robespierre asks, sounding rather suspicious.

"Should I break it to him gently?" Siesta asks Louise.

"Go ahead, you have a level of tact I could never hope to achieve," Louise says dryly.

"We heard that you were a political scam artist who only supported stupid policies and used underhanded means to silence your opposition," Siesta says. "In short, we heard you're a brat."

"May I humbly request you ask your servant to hold her tongue?" Robespierre asks Louise.

"Believe me, I've tried," Lousie says. "She's not good at following orders."

"Following the shrimp isn't a strong suite of mine," Siesta concedes.

"I'm not a shrimp," Louise grumbles. "Anyway, what do you have to say in your defense?"

"I shouldn't have to say anything," Robespierre answers. "The accusation is baseless, implausible and just wrong. I support every policy and motion that benefits the people at large, never once thinking about what benefit it would bring me."

"Even though you would fall under the umbrella of people benefitting," Louise says. "But that's besides the point. We're not here to accuse you, or charge you, or arrest you. We are simply here to ask that you stop and actually use your title responsibly. When nobility is caught doing such terribly underhanded things such as accepting bribes or thinking solely of actions that benefit themselves and no others it reflects poorly on this kingdom at large."

"I can't help but feel that having such an infamous player become ruler reflects more poorly on our kingdom then any crimes committed by nobility," Robespierre says. "A weak ruler makes a poor impression."

"I'm not trying to make an impression," Louise says. "As I said, I'm here to ask you to stop abusing your rights as a noble. To that end, I have prepared a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Robespierre asks.

Siesta produces a large bag and places it on the table.

"Inside this bag is approximately 10,000 ecu," Siesta says. "We'd have brought more, but we didn't have any larger bags, and the shrimp is too weak to carry anything heavier than a feather."

"And what, pray tell, is the 10,000 ecu for?" Robespierre asks. "I do sincerely hope you're not accusing me of being bribed and then hoping that I'll stop if I'm bribed."

"Not at all, the money is merely an incentive," Siesta says.

"Here is the deal I will propose to you," Louise says. "We are going to play a game of chess. If I win then you will stop taking bribes and do your part to act as a proper member of Tristainian nobility. If I lose, then you will receive the 10,000 ecu and will be free to do whatever you wish. We will never bother you about this topic again."

"I fail to see this as a fair bet," Robespierre says. "I'm an innocent man. If I win then I get a bag of money and my innocence will never be questioned again. If I lose I don't lose anything. I fail to see what's in it for you."

"I believe we all see what's in it for the shrimp," Siesta counters.

"…" Robespierre considers the offer in question. "And if I were to accept, what are the rules of the chess game? Perhaps tournament rules for simplicity's sake?"

"No, I will not be betting the crown," Louise says. "Besides, you already played for the crown once and lost. Playing for it again would be against the rules.

That was a tactic that Henrietta made sure Louise was aware of. Playing with tournament rules meant that winner took the crown. The game, time and any other bets accepted at that moment made no difference. If a game was played using tournament rules, the winner would take the crown. If a noble were to ask Louise to play a game using tournament rules, Henrietta made sure she knew that the answer was to be "no."

"Such a shame," Robespierre says. "I presume your majesty has already come up with the rules to the game?"

"Indeed I have," Louise says. "The set up will be standard chess formation. You will be free to move your pieces however you wish, but I will not be able to move any of my pieces at all. The winner is whoever knocks over their opponent's king first."

"Surely you jest," Robespierre says. "That's not even a game, that's you admitting defeat."

"Are these rules acceptable?" Louise asks.

"… I see no reason why they wouldn't be," Robespierre says.

"Then I'll provide the summary so there is no chance to admit that you're an idiot and had no idea what you were playing for," Siesta says. "The game played will be chess. Count Robespierre is free to move his pieces however he sees fit, while her shrimpliness may not move any of her pieces at all. The winner is whoever knocks their opponent's king down first. If her shrimpliness wins then Count Robespierre is to cease all illegal activity and become a worthwhile member of society. If Count Robespierre wins, he is awarded 10,000 ecu and we never have to be anywhere near him again. Are there any questions?"

"No questions from me," Louise says.

"Nor I," Robespierre says. "I'll have my maid bring out a chess board we can use."

Robespierre signals the maid over and gives her the order. A minute later, the maid brings a chessboard over to the table and sets it up. Louise played black, while Robespierre played white.

"Are both idiots ready to go at it?" Siesta asks.

"I'm ready to play," Louise says, ignoring Siesta's insult.

"And I as well," Robespierre also ignores the remark.

"Very well, both parties please swear by the pledges," Siesta requests.

"Aschente," Louise and Robespierre say in unison.

"You may begin," Siesta announces.

_This won't even be a challenge_, Robespierre thinks to himself. _What kind of rules are these? Is the queen perhaps hoping to get on my good side by putting things so ridiculously in my favor? Perhaps thinking I'll support her if she allows me to do as I please? Ha! What a fool. I'll drag this out as long as possible. Make her bleed, make her regret giving me this opportunity._

As Robespierre was monologuing to himself Louise reached across the board and flicked his king off of the board, sending it spiraling through the air until it landed on the floor.

"The queen wins," Siesta announces.

"… Huh?" Robespierre asks.

"I said the goal was to knock the opponent's king down," Louise says. "I never said it had to be with another chess piece."

"You… You set me up!" Robespierre exclaims. "You cheated! That's grounds for disqualification, and that means I win!"

"I fail to see how she cheated," Siesta says. "I even went over the rules in such a simple manner that a dog could understand them. You must knock your opponent's king down. Since no method was detailed, you could do it through any manner you wished. Her shrimpliness simply decided to be cutesy about it."

"I refuse to accept this ruling!" Robespierre declares. "The referee in this case is completely biased, being the queen's maid! I declare we talk to an unaffiliated party and have them be the judge!"

"It seemed perfectly fine to me," an unknown voice said.

The three sitting around the chessboard turned and saw a young blonde boy standing in the room with them. The boy was wearing a beret with a clover pin on it, as well as a red jacket with a pale green shirt under it and blue shorts.

"How did you get in here?" Robespierre asked.

"The door was unlocked," the boy says. He walks over to the table and examines the chessboard carefully. The boy comes to a conclusion and nods his head. "Yep, I'd say you lost fair and square."

"I fail to see how," Robespierre says. "The queen purposely set up the rules in such a way to give her an unfair advantage, thus rigging the game in her favor from the start. Would you really say that's fair and in the spirit of the ten pledges?"

"I'd say there was just a big difference between the rules of the game you were playing and the rules of the game you thought you were playing," the boy says. "It seems to me you just failed to ask for a little clarification. If the rules were 'the opponents king must be put in checkmate to declare victory,' then that'd be a different thing. Well, I suppose then someone could just move all the pieces on their turn, putting the enemy king in checkmate immediately. Wow, actually deciding how to play the game is almost an entire game in and of itself!"

"Well there you have it," Louise says. "A third party has passed their judgement. You lost, Count Robespierre."

"… It seems that I have," Robespierre concedes. "Very well. I swore by the ten pledges. You shall have your wish. I will no longer accept any bribes from anyone, and I'll start working towards being a better noble."

"That's all we ask of you," Louise says. "Thank you very much, Count Maximilien Robespierre."

"You're welcome, Your Majesty," Robespierre says grimly. "Is there anything else you have to ask of me?"

"No, Count. That will be all," Louise says. Louise gets out of her seat and leaves the Count's manor, followed closely by Siesta and the boy.

"Well played, your shrimpliness," Siesta says. "Not how I would have handled it, but I'm not as bad at games as you are. If I were as awful as you are then I probably would have done something as underhanded."

"I wouldn't say it's underhanded," the boy says. "I thought it was actually rather clever."

"Since no one's asked yet, who are you, if you don't mind me asking," Louise asks the boy. "I'm thankful for your judgement during that game, but I can't say I'm not curious who you are."

"I'm just a passerby," the boy says. "You can call me Tet if you want."

"Thank you for your help, Tet," Louise says. "Is there perhaps anything you wanted in return for the help, or was that just a random act of charity?"

"There's a few chess tables set up down there," Tet says. "How about we play a game?"

"Your shortness, I wouldn't recommend such a thing," Siesta says. "Henrietta is likely waiting for us and it wouldn't be nice to keep someone who would actually be a good queen waiting."

"… Siesta, go on ahead," Louise says. "Tell Henrietta that I'll catch up with you later."

"Very well," Siesta says. "I'd try harder to dissuade you, but this means I get to spend less time with you. The amount of time I spend away from you is directly related to how happy I am."

"… Thank you, Siesta. You're dismissed," Louise says.

"Of course, your shortness," Siesta says with a bow before turning around and leaving.

"Okay Tet, where are the chess tables you mentioned?" Louise asks.

"Over this way, Miss Queen!" Tet says, leading Louise down the street. They eventually ran across a few tables with built in chess boards. Tet sat down and motioned for Louise to take a seat as well. "So, do you want to go first?"

"Doesn't matter to me," Louise says.

"Well, you are the queen, so it'd seem weird if you didn't go first," Tet says, setting up the board so Louise played white. "Are the standard rules of chess okay?"

"I don't see why not," Louise says. "I don't exactly have a reason to play against you the same way I did the count."

"Okay then, what should we bet?"

"We're betting?" Louise asks. "I thought this was just going to be casual game."

"Well, isn't gambling a huge part of every game in this world?" Tet asks. "Everyone always bets something, right?"

"I suppose," Louise says. "I don't particularly have anything I can bet at the moment. What would you like to play for?"

Tet pulls out a book and a key and places them both on the table.

"This is actually a book I wrote about two good friends of mine," Tet says. "It's a pretty good story, I think you'd find it entertaining."

"Okay," Louise sounds a little uncertain. "And the key? What's it go to?"

"I don't know," Tet admits with a smile and a shrug. "I found it and thought it was interesting. It has to go to something, doesn't it? I wonder what its story is."

"Okay, I'll bite," Louise says. "You're betting the book and key, but what am I supposed to be betting here?"

"How about your crown?" Tet asks.

"Absolutely not," Louise says. "I'm sorry, but the right to rule isn't something I can simply gamble away."

"Right to rule? I just wanted to wear the crown for a bit," Tet says.

"Huh? Really?" Louise asks. "You just want to wear the crown for a bit."

"Just a minute, to see what it's like," Tet says. "Sound like a fair bet?"

"... That sounds okay to me," Louise says. "Aschente."

"Aschente," Tet says as well. "Your move."

The game begins. Louise opts for a defensive play style to lead off. Considering the stakes of this match are very low, she wasn't too concerned with whether or not she would win. As curious as she was about both the key and book, she wasn't going to be too broken up about not getting them if she lost.

"So how is the crown treating you?" Tet asks as he makes a move. "Having a fun time as queen?"

"No, not really," Louise replies. "It's been really stressful."

"Really? It doesn't seem like you're doing anything that stressful," Tet says. "You're just playing games. Games are supposed to be fun, right?"

"I haven't gotten a chance to play much," Louise says, thinking about her next move very carefully. "The games we've been playing against the nobles aren't games we can afford to lose, so Henrietta's been handling them. That game against Robespierre was the first time I've played in a while, if you can even call it that playing."

"Why's it matter if you win or lose?" Tet asks. "Isn't the tenth pledge _Let's all play games and have fun together_? If you're focusing so much on winning or losing then you're not exactly following the pledges, are you?"

"I'm sorry, but I need to take this seriously," Louise says. "Tristain is such a weak kingdom I can't afford to let it get any worse. I need to do everything I can to make it better. Everyone's relying on me to make that happen. I can't afford to let them down."

"I think you're going about it wrong," Tet says. "No matter what the stakes are, it's just a game. I think that's been your problem the entire time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Louise asks.

"You're pretty bad at games, aren't you?" Tet asks.

"I suppose you could say that," Louise says.

"So, do you remember the last time you ever actually enjoyed a game you played?" Tet asks.

"Yes, actually," Louise replies. "Back when I was a little girl playing with Henrietta or Naga. I never beat them at anything, of course, but I still had lots of fun playing with them. Beyond that… I don't think I've ever really had fun."

"That's why you keep losing, you're too tense!" Tet says. "It's a game, lighten up and have a good time! I've never met a single person who hasn't played better when they're having fun."

"It's easy for you to say 'have fun and don't worry.' You're not a queen with an entire nation's fate on her shoulders," Louise says.

"You're right, I'm not," Tet admits. "I've had much bigger things to worry about before."

"Bigger than having to keep an entire nation alive and thriving?" Louise asks. "… Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm just a passerby," Tet says with a smile. "Wow, that was a pretty good game."

"Huh?" Louise asks. She looks at the board and sees just what the results of the game. Both sides were reduced to their king as their sole unit left on the battlefield. In other words: "A draw?"

"Yep, we tied!" Tet says. "I'm kind of surprised, to be honest. I thought I'd be able to promote my pawn with you noticing, but you actually managed to catch it. Good game, Louise!"

"When did… when did any of this game happen?" Louise asks.

"You must have been pretty engrossed in our conversation," Tet says. "Don't worry, you still played a pretty good game! Since it was a tie, that means we either both win or we both lose. Which sounds better?"

"I'll say we both win," Louise says. She takes the crown off of her head and hands it to Tet. "Just for a minute, okay?"

"Just fine!" Tet says. He takes off his beret and replaces it with the crown. In exchange, he places his beret on Louise's head. "There you go. And, as promised, here you go."

Tet hands Louise the book and the key.

"I'll be sure to take care of them," Louise assures Tet

"Oh, don't worry about that, they're yours now, do what you want with them," Tet says. "I had fun playing with you. I look forward to playing a few games with you again. See you around Louise, good luck with being queen!"

"Thank you Tet," Louise says. "I'll see you around."

With that Louise got up and walked away, deciding that perhaps it was around time for her to finally head back to the castle. She still had a lot of things to deal with after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Notes:**

Ooooh boy, I am really excited for next chapter. We can talk about that a little later, I suppose. Okay, the crown. Yes, Tet ran off with it last chapter. Both parties were a little too distracted to notice. Hey, he gave it back this chapter so it's not really a problem.

Three major things this chapter. Firstly, the book. Yes, it's Tet's account of Sora and Shiro's adventure in the original show. He edited it a bit so it would make sense to the broader audiences, but the key points are all there. I mean, Tet wouldn't really feel like spoiling the existence of Sora and Shiro's world, would he? And he also doesn't seem like the type to go around constantly advertising that he's the god of games. Seems like it would attract too much attention. Anyway, Louise definitely picked up on a few things from the first volume, and a lot of that will come up again next time Tet shows up to give her volume 2.

Secondly: Siesta. At some point Louise and Siesta needed to have some kind of conversation about Siesta's attitude. The whole thing regarding Siesta and why she's so attached to Henrietta is something that I want to go into later in the story. There's a story there that explains why Siesta would be so upset that Louise stole the throne from Henrietta. I'd say more, but that can wait until we actually get to that story.

Thirdly: Count Mott. He may not be a very imposing one, but he is going to be the "final boss" character for the Tristain story arc. Yes, next chapter we'll be wrapping up Tristain and finally move on to another kingdom! About time, isn't it? So yes, the actual terms and rules of the game they'll be playing will be detailed next chapter. I'm going to have fun with that. It'll be the first game I get to write in full since the chess game in the prologue! That's my new year's resolution for this story, more games. And trust me, we're definitely going to get more games as the story progresses. I can't wait. Anyway, that's enough from me, enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 4**

"Welcome back, your shrimpliness," Siesta said as Louise walked into the castle. "You certainly took your time."

"What happened?" Henrietta asked, walking up to her friend. "Siesta said you stayed behind to play chess with some boy, but that shouldn't have taken that long."

"I got stopped on the way back," Louise says. "Siesta, remember that seiren that said hello on the way to Robespierre's house?"

"I do," Siesta says.

"She asked me to sign a paper for her," Louise says. "An autograph or something, I don't know. She asked about some other stuff too and it took forever for me to get away."

"What'd she ask about?" Henrietta asks.

"Nothing, nothing," Louise says, waving the question away and hoping they didn't notice her blush. "Nothing worth repeating."

"… Louise, what are you wearing on your head?" Henrietta asks.

"Hmm? Oh, this thing," Louise says, taking the beret off of her head and looking at it. "It's a beret. A very nice looking beret, I really kind of like it."

"I understand it's a hat," Henrietta says, completely missing the fact that it's not just any hat, it's a beret. "The main point of my question was asking where the crown went."

"… Ooooh!" Louise says. "Yeah, I guess that'd be important. See, me and the kid made a bet and if he won he got the crown fo-"

"LOUISE!" Henrietta exclaims. "WHAT WERE YOU-"

"It's okay!" Louise says. "The bet was that if he won he could wear the crown for a bit. I would still be queen, he just wanted to see what it would be like to wear the crown. We made that very clear before we agreed to the bet."

"… You're sure?" Henrietta asks, looking at Louise suspiciously. "This child isn't going to come by, proclaiming himself king because he won the crown from you?"

"It was made very clear to both parties that his side of the bet only involved being able to wear it," Louise assure Henrietta. "There's not a chance that he'd pull something like that, he doesn't seem like the type."

"I'm more concerned with how you lost to a child," Siesta says. "I suppose I'd expect nothing more from you, shrimp."

"Oh, I didn't lose, we tied," Louise corrects. "As such it was decided that we both won, so he got to wear the crown and I got this book and key."

"What's in the book?" Henrietta asks.

"He said it was about two friends of his, but I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet," Louise says.

"Would that key happen to go to a box we could lock you in?" Siesta asks.

"No idea," Louise says. "He said he found the key but doesn't know what it goes to. Seems interesting enough that I wouldn't mind keeping it."

"Louise, would you happen to know the boy's name and appearance?" Henrietta asks. "We should work on tracking him down to retrieve the crown. It's important that the queen have her symbol of authority. It's hard to respect a monarch without a crown."

"Do we have to?" Louise asks. "I like the beret, it's more comfortable."

"And it makes you look less like a queen and more like a vagabond," Siesta adds. "When I say it like that I suppose the beret is more fitting for you. Go ahead and keep it, save me some work."

"I suppose the crown is kind of important," Louise concedes. "You don't see monarchs without crowns that often, I guess. Plus it wouldn't be good if he sold the crown or something like that. I don't think he would, but we should still get it back. He was about this tall, simple, but colorful, clothing, shortish blonde hair, said his name was Tet."

"… Tet?" Henrietta asks. "Are you sure you heard him right?"

"Yes, his name was Tet," Louise says. "Is that important?"

"… No, probably not," Henrietta says. "I thought I heard it somewhere before, but its most likely a coincidence. Multiple people can have the same name, I suppose. We can get to work on retrieving the crown in the morning. For now, it's late and we should go to bed."

"There's an idea I can get behind," Louise says. "Siesta, are the royal baths ready?"

"They should be," Siesta says. "Planning to relax in the bath after such a long and arduous day of back-breaking work, your shortness?"

"Well the alternative is to disregard the bath and deal with your pages long list of insults you've prepared should that ever happen," Louise says.

"I resent that accusation," Siesta objects. "My list of insults is only a page at most. I keep my thoughts short and concise."

"Being overly verbose isn't your strong suite," Louise admits.

"I say as much is needed," Siesta agrees.

"We all know that isn't true," Henrietta says. "You've said quite a few things you shouldn't have."

"That is true," Siesta admits.

"All of them aimed at me," Louise says.

"That is also true," Siesta admits. "It may shock you to find this out, but I'm not exactly fond of you for stealing the position Henrietta worked every day of her life for. For some brat like you to get lucky and destroy the over a decade of work Henrietta put into becoming a worthy queen pisses me off, if I may be truthful."

"I didn't exactly plan on becoming queen," Louise says. "I never even wanted to become queen."

"And I never wanted anyone other than Henrietta to become queen," Siesta says. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some final chores to finish up. The toilets provide much better company than you."

Siesta turns and marches off, leaving Henrietta and Louise alone. Louise sighs, completely resigned to the fact that Siesta will probably always hate her. She would have been more upset about it if she hadn't felt it was completely justified. Siesta very clearly held Henrietta in high regard, and for someone as worthless as Louise to swoop in and take what Siesta viewed as Henrietta's rightful place on the throne… Well, honestly Louise wasn't sure who was more upset about the predicament they found themselves in, herself or Siesta.

"Why does she hate you so much?" Henrietta wonders out loud. "It would be so much easier if we could all be friends. Working together would actually be possible instead of just working with each other and having her insult you all the time."

"I'm not broken up about it," Louise says. "Being ridiculed and hated isn't something I'm all that unfamiliar with."

"It isn't?" Henrietta asks. "Were you bullied a lot back at the academy?"

"I'm going to take a bath," Louise says, completely ignoring Henrietta's question. "I'll see you in the morning, Henrietta."

Louise gave Henrietta one final curtsey before walking towards the royal baths.

"Louise," Henrietta said to herself. "What exactly was happening to you back at the academy? I wish you would tell me. We're friends, aren't we? Can't you trust me with something like that?"

Henrietta sighed and headed back to her room, desperate for a good night's sleep to take her mind away from these previous few minutes.

***Scene Break***

The defining characteristic of the royal baths was the fact that they were the **ROYAL** baths. They existed for no one but the ruling party. They were large, luxurious, completely private and even had a hallway that went directly to the king/queen's bedroom. Louise wished there were more royal-class rooms so she could actually go to and from her bedroom to somewhere else in the castle without bumping into anyone if she didn't want to. However, only the royal baths were that private. Louise figured it was probably the best she could ask for. If the baths weren't the most private place in the residence, then something needed fixing. Not to mention it would probably be difficult to add new hallways considering the castle was already built, and any new additions would take far too much work to actually add.

"Well, I'm not an architect," Louise said, clad only in her bath towel, as she walked down the private hallway to her room while drying her hair. "Though I suppose as queen I could hire a pretty good one to explain things like that to me. I guess that's hardly a priority, considering the the other issues I still have to deal with."

Once in her room Louise tossed the towel she was using to dry her hair into a corner and looked through the closet for a good nightdress. She wasn't exactly in a fashionable mood that night, so she had a hard time picking out a good one. Eventually deciding that she didn't care enough to actually bother, Louise threw herself on her bed and lied down, still wearing only her bath towel.

"Not like anyone ever comes in here," Louise says, rotating so she was lying on her back. "Siesta sleeps in the maid's quarters, and we repurposed the guest bedroom to be Henrietta's. Why does a royal castle even have a guest bedroom, who are we expecting to stay for the night?"

Louise decided it didn't matter and instead started going through her schedule for the next few days.

_Alright, now that Robespierre and whoever Henrietta was playing are taken care of, that puts a solid dent in the corrupt nobility. There's still a few we need to deal with, Siesta should provide me with those details in the morning. Also, I believe some seirens were petitioning for some expansions to their housing areas, since those were getting cramped. I'll have to talk with some people about possibly seeing to that. Wait, no, it's not that simple. Weren't some dwarves complaining that seiren expansion would cut into their lands? What lands, Tristain doesn't have any land. In any case, I'm sure there's an easy compromise there, I'll have to start working on that. Probably section off certain lands as dwarf land and thus, unable to have any non-dwarf settlements, and then see what land we can use for the seirens. Also, Germania's crown prince is supposedly having a wedding sometime next week, and considering the invitation that arrived in the mail for me I suppose I'll have to go there as well. I'll need to start working out transportation for the trip. Why do I have to go, I barely know anything about the fairies, and we've still got some Tristainian problems to work out! Well, it's a diplomatic thing, I suppose. It'd hurt Tristain more than it helps if I were to skip out. It'd be my first vacation since I arrived at the castle, so that's a plus. Also I still have my lessons with Henrietta to focus on, I can't forget about those, she'd never let me hear the end of it. Plus I need to track down Tet and get the crown back, preferably before the Germanian prince's wedding, that way nobody asks any stupid questions. Why do I even need to get the crown, I don't even like it that much, the beret's way more comfortable._

"AAAHHH!" Louise exclaims. "Too much stuff to focus on! Haaaaaaah. Why did I have to be queen? I'm just a stupid zero who can't even win a game. Well, I somehow won against Henrietta, and I kind of won against Robespierre. That was a little underhanded. Tet said it was alright though. … Speaking of whom."

Louise rolls onto her side and reaches for the nightstand next to the bed. She pick up the book Tet gave her and briefly leafs through it.

"Maybe a good read will get my mind off of this stupid queen thing," Louise says.

Louise wriggles into a somewhat comfortable sitting position, taking care to make sure the bath towel didn't fall off, and turns back to the first page of the book.

_"Foreword: This is a book I wrote about two good friends of mine. I may have embellished a few things, and omitted a few others, but I assure you that everything written in here did happen."_

"If you're admitting to embellishment and omissions that makes it a bit harder to think it actually happened," Louise notes. Regardless, she decided to give Tet the benefit of the doubt.

She read about two siblings who came from a far off land. The two siblings arrived in the human kingdom (the kingdom wasn't called Tristain, Louise noticed) and became involved in the kingdom's politics, playing their way to the position of king and queen. The novel ended with the two siblings being crowned and delivering a speech to all of humanity. Once she had finished, two emotions surged through Louise: confusion and anger.

"What the heck?!" Lousie exclaims. "You're just going to end it right there?! What happens next? They're going to take on the rest of the world, right? What happens with that? Do they take on the other kingdoms? Do they win? Do they lose? You can't just end it there without answering the most important questions!"

Louise's rant was interrupted when she saw a note written on the lower righthand corner of the final page.

_"Sorry to cut off so abruptly, I only had so much paper! Don't worry, I'm fixing up a few typos and revising a few lines, so the next volume will be ready shortly. I look forward to playing more games with you Louise! -Tet."_

"Next volume?" Louise asks. "So he wrote more. … Wait, was this note written specifically for me? Was he expecting to run into me tonight? Just who is that kid?"

Now that the anger had subsided, the rest of Louise's confusion was allowed to bubble forth.

"The two are from a far off land, but the only humans alive in the story are living in the human kingdom, so where did they come from?" Louise wondered. "And what's up with that world? The ExMachina aren't extinct and every race has it's own kingdom? What exactly is this book trying to say? Is it some kind of alternate universe or a tale from the past or future or something… Well, humanity is still the weakest kingdom, at least that hasn't changed. Where does Tet figure into it? He said these two are his friends, but he didn't even show up at all. And that speech the boy delivered at the coronation… It's probably nothing. We're supposed to be tracking Tet down anyway, I'll ask for the next volume then. … Oh yeah, I should ask about all those other questions I had next time."

Louise grabbed some paper and a pencil and wrote down all her questions so she wouldn't forget the next time she met Tet. Having decided her day was long enough, Louise decided to go to change into a proper nightdress and go to sleep.

***Scene Break***

The next day Louise was in her office sifting through the mountains of paperwork she had to work on. Being queen wasn't as easy as saying yes or no to various proposals, there was a lot of paperwork to go with it. Paperwork that a certain maid had very little respect for.

"Your shrimpliness, a package for you," Siesta says, slamming a taped-up box on Louise's desk, sending important papers flying everywhere.

"Could you have been a bit more gentle with it?" Louise asks.

"I could have, but chose not to," Siesta answers. "It was left in front of the gate to the castle. Apparently it's from Tet."

"Tet?" Louise asks, looking at the package. "… Thank you Siesta."

Louise grabs the nearest sharp object, a letter opener, and cuts the tap so she can open the box. Inside the box was the royal crown as well as a letter.

_"Sorry Louise, I accidentally took the crown with me. Don't worry, I held up my end of the bargain and only kept the crown temporarily, you can have it back! Feel free to keep the beret though, I have spares. See you next time! - Tet."_

"Well, that's one thing I don't need to worry about any more," Louise says, removing the beret from her head and replacing it with crown. _Though that means I can't bug him about the novel. … And I'm stuck with this really annoying headpiece._

"Indeed, which means that's one less block of time I need to spend in your vicinity," Siesta says. "Always good news."

"… Siesta, can we have a talk?" Louise asks.

"About what?" Siesta asks. "I don't feel like you could ever say anything that I would care enough to listen to."

"That's exactly what I want to talk about," Louise says. "Look, can we do something about… that whole thing?"

"What whole thing?" Siesta asks. "Are you perhaps referring to the fact that we both hate each other?"

"Well no, because I don't hate you," Louise says. "I'm more annoyed by the fact that you really hate me. Yes, I understand why, I stole the crown from Henrietta and you're really fond of her. I don't get why exactly that translates to complete hatred for me. I never did anything to you, did I?"

"Yes you did," Siesta says. "You made Henrietta sad."

"… What?"

"You heard me," Siesta says, a slight amount of scorn entering her voice. "Do you know how long Henrietta was waiting for that tournament? She was counting the days, always coming up to me and talking about how excited she was, about how she couldn't wait to take her father's place and start steering this kingdom back towards it proper status. In the time leading up to the tournament, that really was all she ever talked about. She spent day and night practicing, making absolute sure that she was ready for anything. She absolutely had to win. Then you showed up and ruined everything for her. I don't feel like you understand just how crushed Henrietta was when she came back without the crown."

"… Yes, I think I do," Louise says. "When we were little she would talk to me all the time about how much she admired her father, and how much she wanted to be queen. I think I know just as well as you how much winning the crown would mean to her."

"And you still wonder why I hate you?" Siesta asks. "You know exactly what you did to her, and you just don't care?"

"Whether or not Henrietta or I care about who the queen is doesn't matter right now," Louise says. "What matters is why you care."

"… What?" Siesta asks.

"You heard me," Louise says. "Why do you care? I get it, you and Henrietta are friends. I can understand being upset that your friend didn't get what she wanted. Why take it out on me?"

"… It's not something I think someone like you would understand," Siesta says.

"I know it's not," Louise says. "I'm asking _because_ I don't understand. Help me understand you. Why do you dislike me so much?"

"Because I want Henrietta to be happy, and unlike most people I don't have a lot of people I'm close to, so I'm rather protective of those I am close to," Siesta says.

"Siesta, is Henrietta your only friend?" Louise asks. Siesta doesn't comment. "… I think I'm starting to understand you a little. Siesta, I'm sorry."

"For what, existing?" Siesta asks. "Because that's a pretty big sin you've committed."

"I'm sorry for not taking time to understand your feelings on the matter," Louise says. "I know you care about Henrietta and resent me for stealing what you feel was her rightful place on the throne. I want you to know it wasn't something I did on purpose. I'd much rather have Henrietta be queen."

"The one thing we can agree on," Siesta notes.

"Unfortunately that doesn't mean anything right now," Louise says. "I'm the queen, and I'm going to prove to you that I can be a queen that's so great you'll be begging for forgiveness!"

"I doubt that," Siesta says. "You're far too much of a shrimp to ever have a presence that forces people to bow at your feet."

"I'm a late bloomer, I'll get taller," Louise says.

"No you won't," Siesta says. "At least you can take solace in the fact that there are people out there who are into people like you. Unfortunately those people are all locked up in jail due to illegal behavior."

"Ha ha ha," Louise says dryly, rather than actually laughing. "Hilarious. Actually no, it wasn't."

"I'm a maid, not a comedian," Siesta admits. "Now if you'll excuse me, I do have matters to attend to that are much higher on my priority list than spending time with you."

"One of these days we'll have a conversation without you insulting me," Louise tells her.

"Don't hold your breath," Siesta says. "On second though, go ahead. You're apparently a master breath holder, and after a while both of our problems would be solved."

"Go on, you're dismissed," Louise says, waving Siesta off. Once the maid had left the room Louise sighed. "It would be so much easier to work together if we were friends. One day. One day."

What could have possibly turned into a one woman strategy session regarding how to get Siesta to like her was interrupted by the door opening.

"Your shortness, you have someone who wishes to speak with you for some odd reason," Siesta says.

"Who is it?" Louise asks.

"He says his name is Count Mott," Siesta answers. "If you're wondering, no he isn't on our list of corrupt nobles we need to fix. Not because he isn't an awful waste-of-human-life bastard, but because he hasn't technically done anything illegal."

"Can you explain a bit?" Louise asks. "It sounds a bit more complicated then that."

"He physically abuses his maids and occasionally loans them out for a nominal fee," Siesta says. "Not respectable in the least, but technically not illegal due to the terms he sets up when he hires maids. As such, we can't exactly do anything about it."

"And what would he like to talk to me about?" Louise asks.

"You ask that question like it's something I know or care about," Siesta replies.

"Right," Louise says. "Whatever, tell him he can come in if he wants."

"Very well," Siesta says. She gives a curtsey and leaves the room. After about a minute she came back in, with Count Mott walking in behind her. Louise thought that he wasn't very impressive looking for a count, but it wasn't her job to determine how impressive someone did or didn't look.

"How are you this fine morning, your majesty?" Count Mott asks with a small bow.

"Fine, just busy," she says. "What is it you'd like to talk about?"

"I wished to discuss your recent actions," Count Mott says. "Specifically, your visits to many of the noble houses of Tristain."

"Oh, this should be good," Louise says to Siesta, who nods in agreement.

"It has come to the attention of many of us nobles that you are going around and forcing members of our class into unfair bets where the odds are tipped enormously in your favor," Count Mott begins.

"Is that how the people see what we've been doing?" Louise asks Siesta.

"I heard a rumor or two like that," Siesta says. "They made me laugh more than anything else."

"I simply came here wondering if this was truly considered acceptable behavior for the queen," Count Mott says. "After all, would it do well for the citizens to hear that their queen is twisting the nobility's arms to such a degree? To go so far as to cheat at various games in order to force the nobility under her banner… it shows very poorly, does it not?"

"I wouldn't say so, considering that's not what's happening," Louise says. "The nobles I've been talking to have all been corrupt beyond belief, and the bets they've accepted have all been completely fair."

"Would you call the Robespierre bet fair?" Siesta asks.

"You're not going to hold that one over my head, are you?" Louise asks right back. "Didn't you say that was well played?"

Siesta remains silent in response.

"Whatever," Louise says before turning back to Count Mott. "Anyway, whatever rumor you're trying to spread has no basis at all."

"Whether or not it does isn't my concern," Count Mott says. "What matter is what the public thinks of it."

"… What are you suggesting?" Louise says.

"I'm simply suggesting that you perhaps be a bit more generous regarding Tristain's nobility," Count Mott says. "If not then people might start getting the wrong idea. Would anyone feel like supporting a queen who forces people to agree with her, as you are doing?"

"Are you trying to blackmail the queen of Tristain?" Louise asks, an edge creeping into her voice.

"No, I'm merely providing a suggestion," Count Mott says. "A rather easy suggestion to follow."

"And I can provide another one," Siesta says. "Perhaps you can go f-"

"No Siesta, no need for that," Louise says. "As much as I want to say that as well, we should tackle this more diplomatically. Siesta, kick him."

"Excuse me?" Count Mott says.

"Finally a suggestion I feel like following," Siesta says with a smile. She readies her leg and directs a kick right between Count Mott's legs. The Count screams in pain and falls to his knees.

"Y-you brat!" Count Mott exclaims as he pulls himself back to his feet. "Queen or not, you should know better than to assault a noble!"

"You seem more like pond scum than a noble," Louise says.

"Lower than a water flea," Siesta agrees.

"Oh, so you don't care about the public knowing about your noble recruitment spree?" Count Mott asks. "All I need to do is tell that to a few people and it'll spread all over the kingdom. No one will ever support someone like you."

"Hah, we'll do things by the book," Louise says. "Siesta, would you happen to have a deck of cards handy?"

"Always," Siesta says, pulling a deck out of her apron's pocket. "You never know when a poker tournament will randomly break out around you."

"Count Mott, follow me to the war room," Louise says. "We're going to play a game."

"And what makes you think I have any reason to play against you?" Count Mott asks.

"Because you have plenty of things to gain from playing against the queen," Louise says. "Now come on, you don't have a choice in the matter."

"Very well," Count Mott says. "Lead the way."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author Notes:**

And here ends the story's prologue. … Okay technically the prologue ended with the first chapter that was called "prologue," but I kind of consider this entire first story arc in Tristain just a prologue for the rest of the story. Now the story starts getting really fun for me as we head out to the other kingdoms and seeing what goes on there. Next stop: Germania, land of fairies! But that's for later.

Since this is the end of the first arc, I figure I might as well talk a bit about this story's future. You can probably figure out the plan. Each kingdom is going to get its own story arc, with each being probably around six chapters. Where's the fun in a story like this if we don't go to all sorts of other fun places and meet all sorts of new people? The downside of this is that we won't always get much of some characters. Henrietta, for example, won't be showing up much in the next few story arcs. She doesn't know much about Germania after all. As such, every two story arcs there'll be a sort of mini-arc where I gather the characters and just screw around. If we just move from one plot point to another there's no time to have fun with these characters, and isn't that the whole point?

Second: No, Saito will not be appearing in this story. His whole role in the story "some kid who's from earth and lands in another world" was already taken by Sora and Shiro 6000 years ago. Having another one would just be redundant. Probably. Not much else to say about that, he's not showing up.

Thirdly: romance and relationships. Basically, is anyone going to get together with anyone else? … I dunno. I haven't gotten far enough to think about that. I mean, I have a few notes about who has a crush on who, but whether or not that'll evolve into any actual romance isn't something I know yet. We'll see. Or maybe we won't. Who knows?

As for the actual chapter, I had tons of fun with this. Like, really, this chapter was so much fun to write. I don't want the author notes to run too long, so I'll keep it short and say: I really hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Anyway, that's it until the next story arc, see you all next time!

**Chapter 5**

Louise and Siesta led Count Mott through the castle to the war room. Louise headed for the largest table and took a seat. She motioned for Count Mott to sit opposite of her, which he did. Siesta walked over to the table while shuffling the deck she was holding.

"If there's one thing I can say about the staff here, it's that we're very good at settling things through poker," Siesta says. "I'm somewhat glad that her royal shortness understands at least that much."

"Considering how heated those tournaments get it'd be surprising if I didn't understand," Louise says. "Okay Count, as you may have gathered the game we'll be playing is poker. Considering this room's actual purpose, it makes sense that we use the maid's rules for the game."

"Forgive me, but I don't converse with this castle's maid very often," Count Mott says. "What exactly are the rules we'll be playing?"

"Each player is dealt five cards," Siesta begins her explanation. "No jokers or other wild cards are allowed. Each turn before calling, raising or folding you may discard any cards in your hand and redraw that number to refill your hand, if you so wish. Due to the number of players in this particular game, both sides will start with 100 chips. When you do bet, please note that the minimum bet is five chips. If you don't have enough coins to meet the minimum bet, such as only having three or four chips, then you must bet everything you have. The winner is whoever claims all 200 chips, thus rendering the opponent unable to make any more bets."

"And considering the nature of this particular game, I'd like to request an additional rule be added," Louise says. "If you're running low on chips to bet, you may bet other things."

"Things such as?" Count Mott asks.

"Things such as property, or recanting your previous 'suggestions,'" Louise offers. "Of course you don't have to, but a bet like that could perhaps save you an extra hand. Oh, and if you run out chips you still lose, so no tricky stuff with running out of chips and then betting other things to try and keep yourself in the game."

"I see what you're trying to do here," Count Mott says. "Well, since one party has made a suggestion for a rule change, perhaps I may make another?"

"As long as its reasonable, I don't particularly care," Siesta says.

"Obviously neither her majesty nor I could shuffle the deck as there's the possibility of cheating," Count Mott says. "And if this maid were to shuffle the deck, would that not also invite the possibility of cheating since she is your personal maid?"

"He has a point," Siesta says to Louise. "I can't say I'm overly fond of you, but I hate this tub of lard even more."

"L-Lard?!" Count Mott exclaims.

"That is true," Louise says.

"What, me dealing the cards being unfair or him being a tub of lard?" Siesta asks.

"The latter, obviously," Louise says, causing Siesta to snicker slightly. "Though the former is also true. So then Count Mott, what would you propose we do? I do hope you aren't going to say that we should use one of your maids. Wouldn't that invite the exact same problem?"

"I would never dream of suggesting something like that," Count Mott says. "I do however know of an impartial referee who could be of assistance to us. That is, provided we're willing to pay him, though I imagine it would be no problem for one of your status."

"Siesta, do referees for hire actually exist?" Louise asks.

"Not many, but there are a few," Siesta confirms. "After all, why bother tracking down an unbiased third party when you could pay to have one knock at your door?"

"Fair enough," Louise concedes. "Very well Count Mott. Tell us about this referee and we'll send someone to go get them."

"Of course," Count Mott says.

He provides Siesta with the information needed, and the maid heads out to retrieve the referee. Once Siesta had walked out the door, someone else walked right in.

"Louise, what are you doing here?" Henrietta asks one she sees the setup in front of her. "Who's this man?"

"A pleasure to meet you Henrietta," Count Mott says. "I am Count Mott. It would appear that the queen and I have come upon a slight disagreement."

"Disagreement?" Henrietta asks.

"He thinks that he can get us to stop annoying the corrupt nobles by blackmailing us," Louise explains. "He'd spread some rumors about how we're forcing the nobility to support us through force and rigged bets."

"… That's stupid," Henrietta says. "Not a single thing we've done has been rigged or forced. Every bet is laid out in perfectly clear terms and the participants are free to decline. No one forced them to do anything."

"But the populace doesn't know that," Count Mott said. "All it takes is one little white lie and your entire kingdom can turn against you. Funny how that works, isn't it?"

"… Your Majesty," Henrietta says. "Permission to punch him in his smug face?"

"I already had Siesta kick him, no need to assault him any more than that," Louise says. "Besides we're going to play some poker and have him see things straight."

"L-Louise, you're going to play a game against him?" Henrietta asks. "Are you sure about that?"

"It's the only way to get him to stop what he wants to do, so yes," Louise says firmly. "I'm going to take care of this."

"… Okay then, I'll trust you," Henrietta says. "Just please do keep in mind what you should and shouldn't bet."

"I know what I'm doing," Louise lies.

_Louise what are you doing, stop trying to act all cool and just let Henrietta take care of it._ Louise thought to herself. _She's good at games, it doesn't matter who wins and gets the Count to stop his blackmailing attempt, just that someone stops it. Yeah, I can have Henrietta take care of it! Henrietta would get to "pull her weight" as she always makes a note about, so she'd be happy. Henrietta would be really useful as a result of beating this guy which should make Siesta happy, and I'd be rid of an annoying noble so I'd be happy! We all win! Except Count Mott. He wouldn't be happy. Who cares about that?_

"What a surprise," Count Mott says. "I though you would have jumped at the chance to have your servants strike me down."

"S-servant?!" Henrietta exclaims.

"That is what you and the pain-in-the-ass maid are, aren't you?" Count Mott asks. "You do what the queen asks, do you not?"

"Well, yes, we do," Henrietta admits. "Wait, Siesta's not a pain in the ass!"

Louise kept silent about that one.

"She's a pain like all maids are," Count Mott says. "But useless maids aren't worth talking about. We we talking about the Failure Queen who should simply have her servants do her work, were we not?" Count Mott asks.

"Failure queen?" Louise asks.

"Your win record has become rather infamous, as of late," Count Mott says. "Expectations for you aren't very high, as I'm sure you can imagines. I thought you would have been more then content to send your servant to play your games for you, since you obviously wouldn't be able to handle it on your own."

...

_I'm going to_ destroy _this man_. Louise thought to herself, doing a surprisingly good job of hiding her emotions.

"Louise is not a failure!" Henrietta yells at Mott. "She's done more good for this kingdom in her two weeks as queen then most previous rulers have in their entire reign!"

"All she's done in her weeks on the throne is destroy the foundations of Tristain's economy," Count Mott says. "While those nobles may have been playing outside the law, it was all that was keeping Tristain afloat. Tristain had no choice but to become as self-sufficient as possible, since no other kingdom would dare support a kingdom as weak as ours."

"Has it ever occurred to you or the other corrupt nobles that the reason no other kingdom wants to support Tristain is because of idiots like you doing all those stupid and illegal things you all seem so hellbent on doing?" Louise asks. Count Mott remains silent. "Food for thought."

"I brought the idiot who'll be watching the other idiots," Siesta announces as she walks in with the referee, an older gentleman. Siesta produces her deck and hands it to the referee.

The referee shakes his head and pulls his own deck out and starts shuffling the cards. Siesta would have questioned why he would bother using one deck of cards over another, but decided she didn't care enough to ask and put her deck back in her pocket.

"I certainly hope you two are ready to begin, because it's about time to start the game," Siesta says.

"Shall we first state our starting bets?" Count Mott asks. "You may detail the bets, if you so desire."

"Very well," Louise says. "When I win, you are to apologize for your comments about Henrietta being a servant and Siesta being useless."

"Excuse me?" Count Mott asks.

"You heard me," Louise replies. "Henrietta is my friend, and Siesta has proven she can be a pretty good maid when she's not too busy insulting me."

"If I don't at least get some work done then what point where there be in keeping me around?" Siesta agrees with Louise's point. "I quite liked this job before the shrimp showed up, so I'd like to keep it in the hopes it reaches that level of enjoyment again one day."

"Hence why I'm not asking you to take back your comment about her being a pain in the ass," Louise says to Mott.

"Hey!" Siesta yells, sounding somewhat offended.

"Very well," Count Mott says. "And if I win?"

"If you win, you're free to spread whatever rumors you wish about me," Louise says. "We will do nothing to stop or impede you."

"I see no reason not to accept these terms," Count Mott says. "Though of course, this being poker, the stakes could be raised at any moment, can they not?"

"Of course," Louise says.

"I look forward to seeing what you bet when your back is pressed against the wall," Count Mott says. "Let us begin the game, shall we? Aschente."

"Aschente," Louise declares. "Referee, deal the cards."

The referee nodded and took the deck from Siesta. He shuffled the cards thoroughly and then dealt five cards to Louise, and five cards to the Count. Louise looked at her hand carefully. A three of hearts, a three of spades, a queen of clubs, a king of spades and a six of hearts.

_Okay_, Louise thought. _Pair of threes isn't a bad hand to start off with. My usual poker hand is a lot worse, so this is a good sign of things to come. I should probably discard at least one card, just to see what I could get._

Louise removes the queen and six from her hand and gives them to the dealer. She is dealt two more cards which she looks at. An ace of clubs and a king of hearts. Louise nearly explodes with excitement right there.

_Oh my god! A two pair! I've never gotten a hand like that before! Is the one true god of games looking favorably on me today? This is amazing! Keep it under control Louise. This is poker, you can't let your emotions show to much. Still, this hand is absolutely incredible. Might as well make a bet now._

"Ten chips," Louise says, moving ten of her chips to the center of the table.

"I'll raise you five chips," Count Mott says, moving fifteen chips to the sent of the table. "I feel pretty confident in my hand."

A sense of confidence that was not misplaced. While Louise had her two pair, Count Mott had three queens which beat Louise's hand.

"The best poker hand I've ever been dealt and I still lose," Louise grumbles.

"A two pair was the best you've ever gotten?" Henrietta asks, to which Louise nods.

"Shrimp, that's only marginally better than a pair, which is only marginally better than nothing," Siesta points out.

"Zero percent win rate, remember?" Louise remarks drylys. "Whatever, that's just one hand! Siesta, current score."

"The shrimp sits at 90 chips, while the tub of lard sits at 110," Siesta announces.

"I'm only down 20 chips down in the first round, I can turn this around easily!" Louise says. "Okay referee, next hand, if you would be so kind."

As the dealer hands out the next round of cards, Count Mott could barely contain his laughter.

_Oh you poor, naive queen. Did you really think that I would come to the castle to blackmail you and then intend to play fair? Why did you think that I asked for this particular card dealer? Even when you pay him for your game, he's much deeper in my pocket than yours, of course he's going to rig this game for me. He truly has a way with a deck, always able to make it give exactly the card he needs. Though you don't need to worry that much, miss queen. If I were to win every hand it would suspicious, so you don't need to worry about a complete shut out. There's no fun if you don't at least think you have a fighting chance, right?_

Count Mott looked at the hand he was just dealt. A five of clubs, a four of hearts, a three of spades, a two of diamonds and an ace of spades.

_Of course, "think" is the operative word in that sentence, Count Mott thinks to himself with a smile. If I'm lucky and push her into the corner far enough I might even be able to get her to bet the crown. I've yet to play for it, so no moves I make for it would be illegal. Wouldn't that be incredible, managing to become king of Tristain? I'd be able to do whatever I wanted! Let's see just how far I can push this naive queen._

The two played several more hands, with the victor of each hand switching between the two fairly often. Mott still stayed in the lead and was beginning to widen the gap between the two, with the score sitting with Louise at 35 chips and count Mott with 165 chips.

"You're starting to fall behind, failure queen," Count Mott taunts. "What happened to that confidence you had before the game started?"

"Shut up for a second, I'm thinking," Louise said as she stared at her cards intently.

"Oh, how vicious," Count Mott says. "You could always choose to end this now by going all in. It wouldn't change the outcome at-"  
"Sorry, are you deaf in addition to being a jerk?" Louise asks harshly. "I told you to shut up."

Louise's harsh tone stuns Mott into silence. Henrietta, having never seen Louise like that walks over to her friend's side.

"Louise, what's the matter?" she asks. "You're not doing that bad, you've actually got quite a few good hands."

_That's the problem,_ Louise thinks to herself, looking at her hand. Three kings, two queens. A full house. Louise had never had a full house before in her life. Over the course of this game, Louise had begun crossing off poker hands from her list. She had finally gotten a flush, finally gotten a straight, three of kind and two pair. Honestly, it wouldn't be a stretch to call her luck that game incredible. That was exactly what made her so anxious. Louise knew about her problems better than anyone, and she knew that she could never dream of having luck like that. Something was very wrong.

_I'm just being paranoid_, Louise thinks to herself. _But if I'm not… I can't think of any way to prove that he'd be cheating, and if I can't prove it that means it's probably not happening, right? Besides, I'm not good at figuring out if people are cheating. I can usually work it out after the game because I'm not focusing on the game as intensely, but this is different._

"Does the failure queen plan on making a move any time soon, or should we just call the game right now?" Count Mott asks.

"… Hey," Louise makes a decision. "I feel like the draws have been a bit similar."

"Meaning?" Count Mott asks.

"I was just wondering if we could have a reshuffle," Louise says. "You know, make sure the cards are nice and fresh."

"I don't see why not," Count Mott says, handing his cards over to the dealer. "After all, luck is luck, no matter how the cards are handled."

"… Right," Louise says, handing her cards over to the dealer. She then took the deck from the dealer and started shuffling it.

"What, pray tell are you doing?" Mott asks. "Trying to rig the game? At least be subtle about it."

"Don't worry, I'm going to pass it around," Louise says as she finishes shuffling and hands the deck to Mott. "I figure we could all give it a good shuffle. You know, for luck and all that."

"… I don't see why not," Mott says, sounding rather suspicious as he shuffles the deck.

As Mott started shuffling, Louise glanced over to Siesta who glanced back at her. Louise shifts her gaze to the deck, then back to Siesta. Siesta gets the message Louise was trying to send, and nods. Mott finishes shuffling and hands the deck to the dealer who shuffles it. He gets ready to deal, when Siesta comes in and grabs it from him.

"She did say we all get to shuffle it, remember?" Siesta asks with a smile before shuffling the deck. The dealer remains silent as Siesta finishes up with the deck and hands it to Henrietta who shakes her head.

"Siesta, you know I can't shuffle cards," Henrietta protests. "I'm good at poker and everything, but I can't shuffle to save my life."

"Oh that's fine," Siesta insists, shoving the deck into Henrietta's hand. "This isn't exactly a super serious situation, so feel free to do your best."

Henrietta looks at the deck hesitantly, but decides to give it a shot. Within three seconds, all the cards have fallen to the ground in complete disarray. Henrietta starts freaking out and scrambling to pick up all the cards off the ground. She barely manages to put the cards back into something resembling a deck, which she sheepishly hands back to the dealer. The dealer and Count Mott share a very subtle glance. They decide that there isn't much they can do without revealing their collusion except to continue the game. The dealer deals five cards to both Louise and Count Mott. Louise looked at her hand. An ace of spades, a six of diamonds, an eight of clubs, a three of hearts and a king of spades.

"Much better," Louise says with a smile. The smile immediately faded when something occurred to her. _Wait, did I just set things up so that I'm going to lose even faster? If it really was rigged before I was still going to lose, but at least I won a few hands. Great going Louise, great problem solving there. You're such an idiot._

Count Mott was just as deep in thought. _Clever girl, seeing right through me. I suppose even if she does have such an abysmal win record, she did become queen. I can't underestimate her. Luckily I had a backup plan. She doesn't seem to have noticed, but each of the cards is marked with a symbol that tells me exactly what card it is, and thus exactly what her hand is. Even if she notices the symbols on my cards she won't know what they mean. Sorry Queen, but this game is still mine._

Once again, more hands were played and the gap grew even larger, with the score now sitting at 5 to 195.

"You really suck at this," Siesta tells Louise.

"Shut up Siesta," Louise says.

"Well the card shuffle did seem to bring about some more luck," Count Mott says with a smug grin. "Unfortunately it seems to have all gone to me. Ready to place your last bet?"

"Not my last one," Louise says. "I can bet things besides coins to buy time, remember?"

"Of course, of course," Count Mott says. "And what will you wager?"

_Shoot, what am I going to wager?_ Louise thinks to herself. _Okay, I need to bet something that I can afford to lose. … No wait! I need to bet something I absolutely can't afford to lose! If I bet something I can't lose, that'll make me play better, since I won't want to lose it! Nice thinking Louise. Now, what to bet…_

"Hmmmmm… I bet Siesta," Louise says after a few seconds contemplation.

"Louise?!" Henrietta exclaims.

"You're doing what?!" Siesta yells.

"Oh, your personal maid?" Mott asks, sounding incredibly intrigued. "I'll take that bet. I'd say the queen's personal maid is worth at least three of my own. Dealer, cards."

The referee hands out cards to both sides. Mott looks at his cards. A pair of fours, a pair of sixes and a five. Not the greatest hand, but considering the other party's luck, Mott was confident. Besides, he hadn't technically bet his maids, he'd just made an observation. When the queen got her hand he could see what she was holding and simply fold, removing himself from the bet if he felt he had too or simply change his bet to something worth less. Louise looks at the facedown cards in front of her and sighs.

_I'm an idiot_, Louise thought to herself. _I got so carried away with my thoughts that I forgot I'm playing poker. It doesn't matter how much I don't want to lose, it all comes down to luck. Way to go, me. Now I'm going to lose Siesta and neither her nor Henrietta will ever forgive me._

"You're not going to look at your hand?" Mott asks. "Giving up already?"

"Does it really matter?" Louise asks. "I can't exactly do much to make my hand all that much better. Besides, I already made my bet, I can't change my hand now. So what'll you do, Count?"

Mott wasn't certain of the answer to that himself. Since Louise's cards were facedown he didn't have a good view of what the symbols were, thus meaning he had no idea what her hand could have possibly been. He was unable to try and get a better look at her cards, because that would expose him for the cheater that he was. He would actually need to gamble this time. Considering he had won nearly every single hand in this game, Mott decided to go for it.

"I already made my bet as well," Mott said. "Three maids, remember? Here, pair of four and pair of sixes."

Louise finally flipped over her cards for all to see: three eights. Louise had won that hand.

"Oh thank goodness," Louise says with a sigh of relief.

"'Thank goodness' my ass!" Siesta screams at her. "What the heck do you think you're doing, betting me like that! I'm your maid, sure, but not by choice and I'm certainly not something you can just go and bet whenever you'd like! I'm not some stupid piece of property you bi-"

"Of course you aren't," Louise says, interrupting Siesta. "You're Henrietta's friend, and my maid. I wasn't exactly going to let you go that easily."

"Sure doesn't seem like that when you go and bet me like that," Siesta says, sounding very cross. "Mind explaining that bit of logic, oh great ruler?"

"It's simple," Louise says. "I figured that if I bet something I couldn't afford to lose, I'd be more motivated to win!"

_And it somehow worked out when it by all means shouldn't have_, Louise adds silently.

"… Couldn't afford to lose?" Siesta asks, confusion slowly overtaking her earlier wrath.

"Well, yeah," Louise says. "You're kind of important so I can't lose you."

"Uh… W-well that's…" Siesta face reddened and she started stammering.

What neither Louise nor Siesta realized was that Siesta had misinterpreted "you're kind of important" as "you're important to me." As a result of her confusion, she had missed the part where Louise added "After all, Henrietta would never forgive me if I lost her friend in a bet, not to mention how much the work you do really helps out around the castle and I generally don't completely hate you."

"Henrietta, what's with Siesta?" Louise asks when she sees the maid blushing. "Is she that unused to having her work complimented?"

"… You know what, I'll let you believe that," Henrietta says. _After all, it looks like Louise finally managed to break through to Siesta a bit. If I fix the misunderstanding they'd probably start bickering and hating each other again._

"If you two are done, we still have a game to play," Mott says. "Any other servants you'd wish to bet, or are you back to your chips?"

"Well, betting Siesta worked so well the first time," Louise jokes. "No, too obvious. I'll go for something slightly easier and bet 1000 ecu. Why bet fake coins when we can bet real ones?"

"Fair enough," Count Mot says. "Since you're betting 1000, I'll bet 50 chips. I'm sure that'd be appropriate: Me, giving you a chance to get back into the game."

"Your generosity is appreciated," Louise says, her voice monotone.

Both hands were dealt. Though Count Mott had tried to hide it, that loss had shaken him up. It had less to do with the three maids lost (though he would miss them) and more with how he had lost. The queen had managed to keep her hand a secret from him. Had she seen through his back up plan as well? Had she been even more clever than he anticipated? The thought of having been discovered so easily had shaken up Mott so much that he didn't check to see what Louise's hand was. She had actually looked at it this time, and decided to play. Louise's pair of twos had beaten out Mott's trash hand. This had shaken up Mott even more. It was the first time in recent memory he had never had a proper poker hand. He shook it off and tried to focus on the next bet. Both sides bet 45 chips and Louise once again won, bringing both sides back to the starting pot of 100 chips each.

"Who would have thought we'd both end up here?" Count Mott asked, trying to mask how nervous he was. "I'll admit, I'm impressed. This is a far stronger showing than I had anticipated."

"Thank you, Count," Louise says. "Though honestly, I've grown quite tired of this. Poker's never been a game I'm interested in, I find it kind of boring. How about we both go all in, make things interesting?"

"A sudden death match?" Mott asked. "Rather confident, aren't you?"

_It's more that I'm bored and I want to end this before my luck turns to absolute garbage again_, Louise thought.

"Well?" Louise asks.

"I see no reason not to," Count Mott Says. "Very well, I'll go all in."

"And I as well," Louise says.

Both sides push their pile of chips into the middle of the table. Henrietta throws a nervous glance towards Louise.

"Louise, are you sure about this?" Henrietta asks.

_Not in any way, shape or form_, Louise thinks.

"Absolutely," she says.

"Okay then," Henrietta doesn't seem as sure. "If that's how you feel."

The dealer gave both sides their cards. Count Mott looked at the cards he was dealt and couldn't help but break into a grin. Three kings, two queens. It couldn't get any better then that. He had won. He looked over at Louise and saw that her cards were facedown on the table, and it hadn't looked like she even picked them up.

"What, suddenly feeling some regret?" Count Mott asks. "Feeling you may not get a good enough hand to win?"

"Hmmm... I'm thinking of making a raise," Louise says.

"Excuse me?" Count Mott asks.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," Louise says with a nod of her head. "Okay, in addition to all 100 of my chips, I'll bet the three maids I won off you moments ago. Siesta doesn't need to be bet again."

"You're that confident in a hand you know nothing about?" The Count asks. Louise remains silent and just looks at him. "Alright, I'll offer another three of my maids as a counter. Not like I don't have plenty to spare."

"And if I win this hand, you need to agree to call off the blackmail," Louise says, offering another raise.

"Was that not the whole point of this game?" Mott asks.

"It was, but it was never part of any of the proper wagers," Louise says. "Remember, the first wager I made was that if I won you needed to apologize to Henrietta and Siesta. Now it's time for me to actually get what we came here for."

"Very well," Mott says. "If you win I'll call of the blackmail, and if I win, you need to give me 100,000 ecu."

"Done," Louise says.

"L-Louise?!" Henrietta exclaims.

"Really?" Mott asks. "And what exactly makes you so certain you can make a bet like that?"

"I have faith," Louise says.

"That's a lot of faith to have in five flimsy cards," Mott points out. "How about I offer a raise for once. If I win this hand, I want more land under my name."

"How much more?" Louise asks.

"I want the amount of land I currently own doubled," Mott says.

"I'll triple it," Louise says.

"What?" Mott asks, surprised.

"L-Louise, what are you doing?" Henrietta whispers to her best friend. "We can't go around making bets like that, we don't have that kind of land to give to other nobles!"

"It's okay, I know what I'm doing," Louise assures her. "And in exchange for more land if you win, if you lose you give up all lands in your possession."

"P-preposterous!" Mott says. "You might as well ask me to bet my title and my nobility itself!"

"Is that your current offer?" Louise asks. "Sure. And in return I'll offer a race piece."

"LOUISE!" Henrietta exclaims. "Didn't I tell you to never, ever-"

Louise looks at her friend and smiles. Henrietta wasn't sure why, but Louise's smile certainly made her feel a bit better about this horribly situation. Louise's confidence must be contagious, Henrietta thought to herself.

Mott was stunned by the offer he had just been given. _Race piece? As in one of Tristain's race pieces? I could become ruler of my own kingdom? Forget tripling my lands, I could expand as far out as I wanted! But if I lose I wouldn't be a noble anymore... That can't happen. My hand is unbeatable, there's nothing she has that could beat it! Unless... A royal flush? No, there's no way she can know that, she never even looked at her cards! There's no way she could know what she has! Unless... What if she did figure out what my backup plan? Does she know what the symbol on the back of each card means? That's impossible! She couldn't have! But she seems so confident in her bet. This girl's a zero, right? If she's lost so many times there's no way she could be that good at hiding her emotions. So why can't I get anything out of her! There's nothing, no excitement, no nervousness, her face is completely blank! I can't tell if she's bluffing! She couldn't be. Not with a bet like that. A race piece? It's impossible._

"What's it going to be, Mott?" Louise asks. "Are you going to accept the bet or not?"

_She has to be bluffing. She has to be. There's no way she has a hand that can beat mine, and even is she does there's no way she knows about it. She's bluffing. But she seems so serious. She has to be serious if she's betting with stakes that large. I don't... What am I supposed to do?! She can't possibly be serious, can she?!_

Count Mott drops his hand onto the table and lets his head fall to the table as well.

"… Does that count as a fold?" Louise asks Henrietta.

"Well he folded over pretty well, so I'd say so," Siesta says, having finally recovered from her blushing fit.

"S-so I just won?" Louise asks, excitement creeping into her voice.

"Yes, you did," Henrietta says. "Congratulations Louise."

"I did it!" Louise exclaims, hopping out of her seat and jumping up and down in joy. "I did it, I'm not a zero, I can win sometimes!"

Siesta took the opportunity to flip over Louise's cards and see the hand she won with. A two of diamonds, a six of clubs, a jack of diamonds, a nine of hearts and an ace of spades. In other words:

"An awful hand," she whispers to herself. "Good job Louise, you by all means should have lost.

"I can't believe this," Count Mott says. "How could I lose? I refuse! I won't accept this!"

Count Mott stands up and points at Louise.

"One more game!" he demands. "I want a rematch."

"So you can lose again?" Siesta asks. "I'd be fine with watching that."

"But you don't have anything to bet anymore," Henrietta points out.

"My title, my land, my maids, everything!" Count Mott says. "I want everything back when I win the next game!"

"No, you don't seem to get it, you don't have anything to actually put up for your side of the bet," Henrietta says. "It's not a fair bet if neither side can offer something of equal value."

"And as such, the only way you'd ever get any of your stuff back would be if the queen herself decided to give you all your stuff back," Siesta says.

"Then I want the crown!" Mott declares. "I want to be king so I can have my lands and title back!"

"I think Louise was on to something, he does seem quite deaf," Siesta says to Henrietta before turning back to Mott. "You keep skipping over the main problem, you don't having anything of equal value to bet. There's no reason to humor you."

"… Oh!" Louise says. "I had an idea."

"Oh, this should be good," Siesta says.

Louise fishes around inside her pocket and pulls out a single gold coin.

"I'm going to flip this coin," Louise says. "If its tails then I win and you are to leave the castle immediately. If it's heads, then you lose and you get the royal crown."

"LOUISE?!" Henrietta exclaims. "What exactly are you thinking?"

"I know what I'm doing," Louise says. "Besides, I never even wanted the crown, it's given me far too many headaches. Besides he wants the crown, and doesn't have that much to lose, so it's a nice, enticing bet for him, isn't it?"

"That's true but this is kind of a big thing!" Henrietta says. "This isn't as simple as betting a few gold coins, this is the royal crown you're talking about!"

"… Wait, there's something weird with that bet," Siesta whispers to herself.

"You're willing to bet your right to the crown on a simple coin flip?" Count Mott asks. "Are you trying to mock me with your confidence right now?"

"No, I simply thought it would be a pretty desirable object for you," Louise says. "After all, doesn't everyone want this stupid thing?"

"You seem to not know just what some people are willing to do to get that crown, or what they would do what they have it," Count Mott says. "That kind of power is the most desirable thing in the kingdom."

"If you say so, I just don't see the deal about a gaudy headpiece," Louise says with a shrug. "Anyway, do we have a deal?"

"Deal," Count Mott says without hesitation. "Aschente."

"Aschente," Louise says before flipping the coin. It lands on the back of her hand and she covers it. "Ready?"

"I'm mentally prepared," Mott says. "The question is, are you prepared for what could possibly happen?"

"I think I'll be able to live with myself," Louise says. She uncovers the coin revealing it to have landed on heads.

"Ha ha! I did it!" Count Mott says. "I won! Now cough it up, you naive failure!"

"Sure," Louise says nonchalantly as she passes the crown to Mott. "Here you go."

"L-L-L-Louise, how can you be so calm right now?" Henrietta asks, clearly shaken up. "You j-j-j-just-"

"Won," Siesta finishes the sentence for her.

"… Eh?" Henrietta asks.

"Louise just won," Siesta tells her.

"Okay then, as king my first order shall be-"

"Hold on a second, I don't recall every saying you were king," Louise interrupts, putting Tet's beret on top of her head.

"Are you serious?" Mott asks. "You just bet the right to rule and lost, how can you even begin to make a case that I'm not king?"

"I never bet the right to rule, I just bet the crown," Louise says. "And you got the crown. Congratulations. Doesn't change the fact that I'm still queen."

"Excuse me?" Mott asks.

"Not the first time I've made a bet like that," Louise says. "After all, I don't recall ever seeing it written that you have to have the crown to be queen. Sure they're typically connected, but no law says you need it to rule. Besides, the beret's far more comfortable."

"Wait… So-"

"You're not king, you just posses the crown," Louise says to Mott. "Basically, I won that coin toss, because I really didn't like wearing the crown. It's really uncomfortable."

"You set me up!" Count Mott exclaims. "I demand a rematch!"

"Is that your first instinct whenever things don't go your way?" Siesta asks. "What a sore loser."

"And besides, we can't have another match like that," Louise says. "After all, you already played for the crown, remember?"

"That's completely different!" Mott says.

"I don't see how," Henrietta says, joining the conversation. "The rule very clearly states 'you may only ever play for the crown once.' Louise is right about it never saying anything about the right to rule being included with the crown. Since you already played, you can't play for it ever again."

"This is collusion!" Mott accuses. "The three of you are banding together against me and cheating! This is unfair!"

"I wouldn't say it's unfair," Louise says. "I'd say there was just a big difference between the rules of the game you were playing and the rules of the game you thought you were playing."

"You…" Mott is seething with anger and can't properly get his words out.

"Well what are you still doing here?" Louise asks. "You don't really have any business here, do you? Perhaps you can take that crown and sell it, make a bit more money now that you've bet everything you had."

Mott yells angrily and tosses the useless crown to the floor before storming out of the room. The referee, who was still around for some reason followed shortly after, leaving Henrietta, Siesta and Louise alone in the war room. After a few seconds of silence Louise released a huge sigh of relief.

"Whew!" Louise says with a grin. "I didn't think that would work nearly as well as it would have! God, I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

"Louise, what are you talking about, that was incredible!" Henrietta says. "Wait, no it wasn't! I'm supposed to be furious at you! What were you thinking with those stupid bets?! Betting land we don't have, betting the race pieces, betting the crown?! Were you just ignoring every single lesson I've been giving you? Wasn't the point of every single lesson that these are things you're supposed to avoid betting at all costs? What were you thinking?!"

"S-sorry," Louise says sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I got kind of carried away by the end. But like I said, I had complete faith."

"Having faith in a good hand has nothing to do with what you should bet!" Henrietta says.

"No no, I had faith that he didn't know me that well at all," Louise says.

"Excuse me?" Henrietta asks.

"See, that bluff would have never worked on anyone at the academy. No matter how big I raised the stakes, everyone at the academy would have called my bluff. They know me too well. They know that I'd never actually be able to back up that confidence, no matter what hand I had, they'd call my bluff instantly. All Mott knew was that I had a lackluster win rate, but not how abysmally awful it was. I just kind of toyed with that a bit. It was really kind of fun."

That statement caused Louise to pause briefly. _Fun? I guess it was kind of fun. It's been so long since I had fun playing. I should really play more games._

"I don't quite get it, but please promise me that no matter how confident you are you won't make stupid bets like that again, okay?" Henrietta asks.

"I'll do my best," Louise says. "Anyway, now that that's dealt with, I had some paperwork I needed to finish up."

"Right, I needed to finish up your lesson plan for the next few weeks!" Henrietta announces.

_Sounds wonderful_, Louise thinks to herself.

"But first, I would recommend picking this up," Siesta says, picking the crown up off the floor and dusting it off before offering it to Louise. "I mean, yes, Mott currently has the right to wear it, but it seems he's given it up."

"Well, Louise made the bet," Henrietta said. "Technically she isn't allowed to wear the crown. Holding onto it for safe keeping is probably okay though."

"I mean, he has to come back for it eventually, right?" Louise says, taking the crown. "I'll guard it for him until then. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

And with that episode wrapped up, everyone went back to their everyday schedule, dealing with whatever matters came up. Then one day:

"Louise, some people are here to see you," Siesta says as she walked into Louise's office.

"Is it important?" Louise asks. "I'm kind of busy with this one stack of papers."

"They say they know you, and the redhead claims that you apparently owe her a favor or two," Siesta says.

"Redhead? … Oh please no. Let them know they can come in," Louise says, not sounding very happy.

"Yes, your majesty," Siesta says with a bow before leaving to fetch the guests.

"Yoohoo!" One of the guests says as she walks through the door. "How's it been going, Darling?"

"Nice to see you again Kirche and Tabitha," Louise says.

"Hello," Tabitha says with a nod in Louise's direction.

"Wow, so you're really the queen, huh?" Kirche asks. "That sure is a step up from zero, wouldn't you say?"

"I am kind of busy, so could we please cut to the chase?" Louise asks. "Is there anything you need?"

"You still manage to suck the fun out of everything," Kirche notes with a wry smile. "Okay then. Well, remember back at the academy the day of the tournament? I beat you at poker and you owe me a favor?"

"Yes, I remember that," Louise says. "I guess you've come by to collect on that favor?"

"Yes," Tabitha says with another nod of her head.

"Well, I did certainly," Kirche confirms. "Tabitha came just because she wanted to see you again."

Tabitha banged her staff against Kirche's shin, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Be quiet," Tabitha says.

"Fine, fine," Kirche replies before turning back to Louise. "So yeah, I have a little problem that I need your help solving."

"Any reason it has to be me?" Louise asks.

"Well, I don't know many people that could help me here," Kirche says. "See, my parents happened to have arranged a marriage for me, and I'm not super fond of the guy they picked. I thought that if I talked with the queen herself, then you could drop by and sort things out."

"You want me to break up your marriage?" Louise asks.

"If you would be so kind," Kirche says.

"I thought you had abysmally low standards regarding the guys you get together with," Louise says. "Who could this guy be that even you wouldn't want to be with him?"

"Oh, he's just the crown prince of Germania," Kirche says with an indifferent tone.

"… Okay, back up," Louise says. "There's a lot of stuff going on here that I need to know about, isn't there?"

"Don't worry, I'll get you caught up on the way to Germania," Kirche says. "What do you say? Feel like helping out an old friend?"

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Louise asks. "After all, I do owe you a favor."

"Thanks darling!" Kirche says. "I'm so glad you decided to help me."

"Thankful," Tabitha says.

"I can't wait to see how long it takes me to regret this decision," Louise says.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author Notes:**

This took a while. What can I say, I've been busy, and I'm lazy. An awful combination. So this is a pretty short chapter that serves as a prologue to the Germania arc. As such, I have very little to say about it. I hope you enjoy the chapter, I plan to hopefully get future chapters out more quickly.

**Chapter 6**

It had been two days since Kirche had made her request, and Louise was currently sitting in a carriage, opposite the aforementioned redhead and her quiet companion.

"Is the explanation I was promised coming at any point?" Louise asks.

"Yes," Tabitha says.

A silence ruled the carriage for a bit. Tabitha read her book, Kirche looked at the scenery outside the window and Louise glared at her two friends.

"_Ahem_," Louise clears her throat.

"Oh! You wanted that explanation now," Kirche realizes. "A question first, if you don't mind."

"Sure, why not," Louise says. "Might as well make sure someone gets the answers they're looking for."

"So what's going on with Tristain?" Kirche asks. "I hear a lot of the stuff coming down the academy's grapevine. Seems like you've been keeping busy."

"I do what I can," Louise says. "Corrupt nobles are kind of a problem, so me and Henrietta are working on fixing it."

"You're pretty successful from what I've been hearing," Kirche says. "Great job, Queenie!"

"Good job," Tabitha says as well.

"It's mostly Henrietta," Louise says. "She's the one playing the games and everything."

"If you say so," Kirche responds. "So who's taking care of Tristain while you're on vacation here?"

"Henrietta," Tabitha answers before Louise can open her mouth.

"Yep, she'll be holding down the fort," Louise continues. "She's the royal advisor, so it's her job to keep things together while the queen is away dealing with foreign issues."

"I don't remember there ever being a royal advisory position," Kirche says.

"Neither do I, but I'm not going to complain," Louise says. "Anymore questions?"

"So, did you ever manage to buy the underwear after our poker game, or did you get too caught up with the crown to do anything about it?" Kirche asks.

"I lost my shopping bag when they dragged me to the castle so for the first few days- Wait, I don't need to tell you that!" Louise exclaims.

Kirche laughs at Louise's remark, while Tabitha continues reading her book. Louise sighs deeply and starts looking out the window.

"Good to see that becoming queen hasn't made you any less fun to tease," Kirche says with a thin smile. "I'd have been so disappointed if the crown made you less cute, Queenie."

"I-I'm not cute!" Louise denies.

"Disagree."

"Huh? Did you say something Tabitha?" Louise asks.

"No."

"Anyway, I'm the queen so that means I'm way above you," Louise says to Kirche. "That means you can't make fun of me anymore. Got it?"

"Understood, Darling," Kirche says with a smile. "Anyway, so I'm engaged to crown prince of Germania, Prince Elden."

"Wait, we're moving on to that?!" Louise asks.

"You were asking about it, weren't you?" Kirche asks. "Weren't you curious about that?"

"I expected a little build up or something more, instead of just dropping into it like that!" Louise says.

"You wanted the information and now you're telling me how to give it to you?" Kirche asks. "I never would have suspected you of being the tyrannical type of queen. I'm so disappointed in you."

"How unexpected," Tabitha says.

"I'm not a tyrant!" Louise complains. "Aagh. Why'd I agree to help you out with this?"

"Perhaps because I won the favor off of you and you can't ever go back on a bet?" Kirche posits.

"Sounds likely," Tabitha says.

"And I already regret making that bet so much," Louise says. "Anyway, you can continue talking about your husband if you want."

"He's not my husband," Kirche says. "Not if you have anything to say about, that is. Anyway, me and Elden. Yeah, he's an annoying little kid. I can't be too harsh on him I suppose, we grew up together. Our dads knew each other so we saw a lot of each other, and he just kept following me around."

"Your dad knew the Germanian king?" Louise asks.

"They were buddies or something, I never asked for the details," Kirche waves the question away. "So the old king's getting old and thinking of passing down the crown, because Germanian monarchy is nothing like Tristainian monarchy."

"And don't I wish it was," Louise says. "It'd make my problems a lot easier if I could just give the crown away."

"Looks like you did," Kirche says. "Or has Tristain run into a few budget problems and had to downgrade?"

"The beret's more comfortable," Louise says. "Henrietta's looking after the crown back at the castle."

"Fair enough," Kirche concedes. "Where was I?"

"Stupid prince," Tabitha helps out.

"Right! The idiot getting the crown. Thanks Tabby," Kirche says as she pats Tabitha on the head. "So the old king steps down, and the crown obviously has to go to his son, right? Well, a king needs a queen, I guess."

"You guess?" Louise asks.

"Well you're doing pretty good without a husband," Kirche says with a shrug.

"Tristain doesn't need a King, and I don't plan on marrying any time soon.," Louise announces.

"Don't swing that way?" Kirche asks.

"Don't see how it's any of your business," Louise responds.

"Ouch, that one stung a bit," Kirche says with a wry smile. "Well, Germanian monarchs need a significant other, so who's little Elden going to pick to be his queen?"

"Well it can't be you, you're human," Louise says. "Only a member of that race can rule their kingdom. A human couldn't be a ruler of the fairies, could they?"

"Eeeh, half and half, I suppose," Kirche says, sounding a little unsure. "I mean, yes that's how it works, but I guess half-breeds are okay."

"Half-breed?" Louise is confused.

"I never brought it up?" Kirche is equally confused. "I transferred to the academy from Germania, remember? Dad's a fairy, mom's a human. I'm living proof of it and I'm confused as to how cross breeding is supposed to work."

"… Sorry, you lost me."

"Dad's a fairy, mom's a human, thus I'm half and half," Kirche sums it up. "Couldn't you tell from my inhumanly good looks?"

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Louise says, returning her attention to outside her window.

"You still manage to suck the fun out of everything," Kirche notes. "Some things just don't change, I suppose."

"So since you're partially fairy, no one minds that you'll be ascending to the throne?" Louise asks.

"Well I mind, hence me calling in the favor."

"I mind too," Tabitha says.

"Why do you mind, Tabitha?" Louise asks. "Why's it matter to you if Kirche becomes queen of Germania."

"I'd see her less," Tabitha says.

"Excuse me?" Louise asks another question.

"Not many friends," Tabitha says. "Just two."

"Oh," Louise says. "I suppose I get it. If Kirche was queen she'd be stuck in Germania and she'd be far too busy to see you all that often."

"Yes," Tabitha answers.

"So Kirche's your friend, but you said you have two. Who's the second one?"

Tabitha chooses not to answer, instead turning her attention back to her book. Louise patiently waits for Tabitha to answer the question, before eventually realizing that the blue-haired girl had exceeded the amount of words she was allowed to use in one day.

"Why so shy, Tabby?" Kirche wonders as she ruffles Tabitha's hair. "You can tell her."

Tabitha buries her face as far into her book as she can, causing Kirche to roll her eyes.

"Can't help you when you're like this," Kirche mumbles to herself before turning back to Louise. "Well, whether or not you feel the same way, Tabby does fell like you're her only other friend."

"… We're friends?" Louise has once again been lost.

"Are you saying you aren't?" Kirche responds. "You two have spent enough time together, I think you qualify."

"… Oh," Louise slowly starts to piece it together. "Huh. Well then. I'm honored to be your friend Tabitha."

"… Likewise," Tabitha eventually says. "Back to topic."

"Oh, right!" Kirche decides to get back on topic. "So little boy Elden gets it in his head that he can make me his queen. He can't exactly force me to do it, that's not how that works, so he asked his Pop about it. His dad talked to my dad, who talked to and ignored my input on the mater, and suddenly I'm engaged."

"So, forgive me for asking, but what's so bad about it?" Louise wonders aloud. "You're going to become queen of an entire nation. Most people would love to have that kind of power?"

"Ah, politics bore me," Kirche scoffs at the idea. "You're queen, you know who it is. It's a lot of very unfun politics and unfun games against unfun people."

"I'm starting to kind of like the games," Louise mumbles.

"What's that Darling?" Kirche asks.

"Nothing," Louise waves it away. "It's not like you'd be doing that much, right? Wouldn't the king actually do most of the work?"

"Ha!" Kirche laughs. "That little guy? He couldn't do anything without me. Homework, essays, chores, he just pushed it all on to me. He's completely unreliable. Unless someone's around to kick him in the butt every few minutes he's going to be an awful king. Talks a huge game and has someone else back it up for him. I don't even know why his dad thinks he could ever be a good king."

"Rambling," Tabitha says.

"Hmm? Oh, right. Thanks Tabby. So yeah, he's that annoying little guy that never leaves you alone."

"Don't you have impossibly low standards for the boys you'll get together with?" Louise wonders aloud. "Is all that really enough for him to not even meet those standards?"

"I'm insulted," Kirche says.

"What, don't like having your night life brought into question?" Louise asks.

"If you're going to bring it up, at least put some thought into why I bother going through with all of it."

"Huh?"

"Forget it," Kirche waves the topic away. "Just forget about it. Or perhaps, don't knock it until you try it. Does that sound better?"

"Shut up now," Louise hisses at Kirche.

"Okay, that doesn't sound any better," Kirche abandons the topic. "Not interested in dating, I understand. I for one am not interested in marrying that guy. No interest what so ever. But of course Dad isn't going to listen to me, I'm his way into the royal family so he's not going to give that up. Mom's like me, in that she's so disinterested in politics that she doesn't want to step anywhere near this situation. Elden's not going to call it off, he's the one who came up with it in the first place. The king isn't going to call it off, he wants a proper successor. I didn't exactly have a lot of options."

"Only one," Tabitha adds.

"Only the one," Kirche confirms. "Tabby reminded me that you owed me some favors, so I thought I'd call one in and see if you could pull anything off. You're royalty now, so I figured that you'd be able to negotiate with the Germanian royalty."

"It's not something I've wanted to do, but I suppose it's something I have to try," Louise says.

"That's all I'm asking, Darling," Kirche says. "As much as I'd love it if you got me out of this little annoyance, I suppose I can't ask for you to perform a miracle."

"I'm not so incompetent that asking a young man to call off a marriage can be considered a miracle," Louise argues.

"Well, everyone in this carriage knows your win ratio," Kirche shrugs.

"I-I'll have you know that I'm not a zero anymore!" Louise declares. "I've won three games and tied on another. My win ration is well above zero percent now!"

"Congratulations," Tabitha says.

"Seriously impressive, Darling," Kirche says, even adding some applause.

"Do you want my help or not?" Louise asks. "Is yes, I'll ask that you please not make fun of me."

"I make no promises," Kirche says with a wide grin.

"How much longer until we reach the Germanian capital?" Louise asks.

"Another two days," Tabitha answers.

"Can we make it go faster?"

"No," Tabitha crushes Louise's dreams.

"Don't worry Queenie, we'll be in and out of Germania before you know it," Kirche assures Louise.

"I feel so much better," Louise remarks dryly. "I just want this to be over with already."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author Notes:**

Hey, the story's not dead! Yay! … Yes, I'm late. I know. I'm sorry.

This chapter. Um… Well, one thing I kind of wanted to do in this chapter was talk a bit about what exactly Germania is, since that's the fun of going to a place in this story, we get to learn a bit about it. One annoying thing is that there is almost no information about the fairies in NGNL that I could find, so I kind of have to make stuff up. I still think it wound up working pretty well. One thing worth noting is that the ending of this chapter was slightly different, in that the chapter ended with Prince Elden's introduction. I cut that out and moved it to next chapter instead, because I think it works a tiny bit better that way. Anyway, I'm sure there's more I could talk about, but I can't think of any. I'll do everything I can to make sure the next chapter doesn't take that long. See you then.

**Chapter 7**

After another two days (though Louise noted it felt closer to several months), the transportation had finally reached it's destination, the capital of Germania, Vindobona.

"Ah, finally!" Kirche exclaims as she hops out of the carriage and stretches out. "Kirche's finally home!"

"Who are you even talking to?" Louise asks as she also steps out of the carriage.

"What, a girl can't be happy that she's back in her home kingdom after so long?" Kirche asks. "It's such a long trip I can't even visit during breaks at the academy. Well, I probably could if Tabby called in a favor or two."

"Won't happen," Tabitha says.

"Yeah, yeah," Kirche says dismissively. "Just saying, it's an option. Well, Darling, what's it like being outside of Tristain for the first time in your life?"

"I'm not that sheltered!" Louise complains. "Even I've visited other kingdoms before. But don't we have something more important to discuss?"

"What would that be?" Kirche asks.

"Don't we have a prince to talk to?" Louise asks. "You know, to negotiate?"

"Well, it's not like we can just waltz right into the royal castle, you know?" Kirche says. "There's all sorts of fancy paperwork and stuff that you need to submit in order to even request an audience. It can takes weeks for an audience request to even get looked at, and even then there's no guarantee they'll actually let you through, so it's possible that you can go through all that trouble and waiting for no reason at all."

"Wh… What?" Louise asks. "Are you serious, I could have come all this way for nothing?!"

"Yep, I'm completely serious," Kirche says. "This could be a real issue. … Fortunately I'm friends with the prince, so it'll take a few days at most."

"… Don't scare me like that!" Louise exclaims. "Say things like that first instead of being so stupidly misleading!"

"But then we don't get to see you get all cute and upset, right Tabby?"

"Staying out of this," Tabitha says as she looks down at her book.

"You're no fun," Kirche says with a pout. "Well, we do have some ways to walk. Come on darlings, we've got to find somewhere to rest for a few days, don't we?"

"Wait, we don't already have something arranged?" Louise asks.

"Well it's not like they're expecting us, are they?" Kirche answers. "Well, they're probably expecting you and me, but not for another few weeks when the wedding takes place. We're here on our own time. As such, we've got to track down somewhere to settle down for a bit. Pop probably wouldn't be happy with me coming home early with the intent of breaking up this who stupid thing, so going home's out."

"So, what exactly is out best option?" Louise asks.

"Hotel," Tabitha answers.

"Bingo," Kirche says. "And while we're hotel hunting we can show you around town. You haven't been to Germania before, have you?"

"Not that I can remember," Louise answers. "I read up on it a little bit, but not that much. Before I was queen I didn't care all that much, and after I became queen I was too busy."

"Seems like the kind of thing you'd prioritize, wouldn't you?" Kirche asks. "We're next door neighbors after all."

"Henrietta wanted me to focus on sorting out the domestic problems before I even thinking foreign relations," Louise answers.

"Eh, I guess that's smart," Kirche says, not really sounding like she cares that much. "Anyway, let's head into the city!"

After her cheer, Kirche walks off with Tabitha and Louise following close behind her. The carriage they took to Germania dropped them off at Vindobona Main Station. All travel to and from the city took place through that station. Citizens who needed to travel anywhere, not just in Germania, but any other kingdom as well, they came by the station. Be it a carriage to another kingdom, a flight to Albion or even something as simple as a short trip around the capital city, this is where you would come to get it.

While Louise and company could have hired someone to drive them the a hotel that would best suit their needs, the group decided that they had been in a carriage for long enough and it would be nicer to stretch their legs for a bit. Their decision made, Louise and company headed East towards the central plaza of the city. As they walked down the street, Louise noted how different the city was when compared to Tristania.

Tristania had a very classical feel to it. While many cities had come and gone in the past few millennia, Tristania had remained almost untouched. Humanity had done it's best to keep the architecture and overall appearance as similar to the city's original construction as possible. There were many reasons, but the main one was that the original capital served as a symbol that humanity was not the weak and worthless race they were originally thought to be. Germania had no such attachment to their cities. In fact, Vindobona wasn't always the capital of the kingdom. The capital had been move there recently by the current king's father so that he wouldn't have to move far away from his family. Since it was one of the kingdom's newer cities, it had a distinct flair compared to some of its older counterparts. The older cities of the fairy kingdom seemed almost fantastical, as if they were pulled from a storybook. As the years passed the fairy architects began slowly moving away from that old style in favor of a new style that resembled the style of the old cities, but updated it slightly. Brighter, more vibrant colors dotted the buildings, a higher emphasis on rounded corners for the buildings and flashier decorations were used to make the buildings stand out.

"Everything's so bright," Louise notes as she walks down the street.

"I prefer the word gaudy," Kirche responds. "Honestly I'm not sure where the idea of making everything such an exhibition came from. Me and Tabitha used to read through some old Germanian history books back when we were kids, and the buildings in those books are way prettier and more interesting to look at."

"Beautiful," Tabitha says.

"Yeah, they had this sense of beauty and majesty!" Kirche exclaims. "The colors were distinct, but not distracting, the buildings had well defined features and didn't all look the same, there was actually empty space on the walls instead of miles of decorations. Then we move a few kings down the line and someone decides it'd be better to go from gorgeous, intricate buildings and tasteful decoration into these artsy museum pieces."

"Well, do these big, fancy buildings mean we could easily find a big fancy hotel?" Louise asks.

"That's all you got out of everything I said?" Kirche asks. "I hoped you'd pay a bit more attention than that. You really don't want to be here, do you?"

"I was kind of busy back at Tristania, and I'm only here because I lost a bet," Louise says in a surly tone. "I have no idea where you could get the idea that I'd rather be anywhere than here."

"Well, you're just a ball of happiness today, aren't you?" Kirche asks.

"Bundle of sunshine," Tabitha adds.

"I don't want to hear that from you," Louise says to Tabitha. "I don't think I've ever so much as seen you smile."

"Tabby's physically incapable of showing happiness," Kirche tells Louise. "The second she shows any form of emotion on her face her body will spontaneously combust. It's a curse placed on her by a particularly mean elf."

"Really?" Louise asks, not sounding very convinced.

"Yep, and the only way to break the curse would be true love's kiss," Kirche responds. "So, once we get a hotel room I'll just let myself out and you and Tabby can- Yeowch!"

Kirche is interrupted by Tabitha banging her staff against Kirche's shin.

"Quit it," Tabitha says.

"I was just joking, there's no need to hit me," Kirche complains. "Just a joke."

"Not funny," Tabitha says.

"Well I thought it was amusing," Kirche says. "Well, I think that's enough wandering around. Usual hotel's fine Tabby?"

"Of course," Tabitha says with a nod.

"Wait, usual hotel?" Louise asks.

"Yeah, we haven't been to it recently, for obvious reasons, but often times when me and Tabby needed a place to crash away from my house we'd rent out a room at this one hotel," Kirche explains. "We're actually friends with the staff there, our room gets a discount, since we're such loyal customers."

"Wait, so we already knew which hotel we were going to be staying at?" Louise asks.

"Well duh," Kirche says. "You really think we'd make any travel plans without having a place to stay? Anyone who makes plans like that is just an idiot."

"Then what were we walking all around town for?!" Louise explodes. "Why didn't we just head to the hotel?!"

"I mean, isn't it customary to take a bit of a tour when you're on vacation?" Kirche asks.

"What about this qualifies as a vacation?!" Louise asks. "I'm going to be in the middle of what amounts to international negations because of the latest of a bunch of stupid bets I've lost! Ow."

Louise would have kept ranting, but Tabitha interrupted her by lightly tapping her fist against Louise's head.

"Making a scene," she says.

Louise looks around and notices a large amount of fairies have stopped walking and were staring at the ruckus she was making. She blushes intensely, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

"L-let's just go to our hotel room," Louise says quietly.

"Right away, darling!" Kirche says before cheerfully trotting off. "Follow me!"

"W-wait, don't walk so fast, I don't know the first thing about this city!" Louise yells at the redhead.

"Come along," Tabitha says as she grabs hold of Louise's hand and starts leading the poor, lost queen through the city.

***Scene Break***

_If there's one thing I can't complain about, it's certainly the baths_, Louise thinks to herself as she walks out of the bathroom in her nightdress before throwing herself onto one of the beds. "Finally today can end."

"What, not a fan of Germania so far?" Kirche asks from her spot on the other bed.

"Not a fan of my experiences so far, no," Louise confirms, not bothering to actually sit up before talking. She was ready to rant a bit more about what had transpired over the day, but stopped when she saw what Kirche was doing. "So… What's going on here?"

"Massage," Tabitha says.

"Yep, just thought I'd give my good friend a bit of a massage while you were busy taking a bath," Kirche says. "Tabby's got some issues and a nice massage helps her out a ton."

"… Um… Sure, okay then," Louise says. "Don't really know what to say about that."

"What, jealous that you aren't getting to experience Kirche's magical fingers?" Kirche asks with a sly grin. "Well, play your cards right and maybe I can slot you in right after Tabby."

"I think I'm good," Louise says. "I'd rather just go to sleep so we skip ahead to tomorrow and try to get an audience with the prince."

"Well, we still have one thing to deal with," Kirche says as she finishes up Tabitha's massage. "Like I said, me and Tabitha use this room all the time, hence the loyalty discount. That comes with a problem."

"What problem would that be?" Louise asks, pulling herself into a sitting position.

"It's mine and Tabitha's room, which means…"

It takes a second, but Louise gets what Kirche is saying. In a room primarily for two people, what use is there for a third bed? Not even a couch for a third person to rest in.

"So… Sleeping arrangements," Louise says.

"And up!" Kirche says as she picks Tabitha off the bed. She walks over to the bed Louise was sitting on and carefully deposits Tabitha right next to her. The two girls on the bed look at each other, then look at Kirche.

"What?" Kirche asks. "You're both tiny, you two combined take up less space then me, that's for sure."

"I-I'm not tiny!" Louise protests. "I haven't hit my growth spurt yet, I'll get taller!"

"I'm not tiny," Tabitha says, almost sounding upset.

"I'm just saying, it's easier to fit the two of you on a bed then it is to fit either of you on the bed with me," Kirche defends her decision. "By the way, just a warning, Tabitha's a sleep hugger."

"Excuse me?" Louise asks.

Kirche claps twice to turn the lights off and hops into her bed, pulls the blanket over her and pretends to have fallen asleep.

"… Stupid Kirche," Tabitha says quietly.

_I know, _Louise silently agrees. _Way to claim an entire bed for yourself, Kirche. I'm really not surprised you make a move like that._

"I guess I can make up a quick bed on the floor," Louise says. "You can have the bed Tabitha, it's practically your room."

"… It's fine," Tabitha says.

_Can't say that's a statement I agree with_, Louise thinks.

"No, really, I'm fine with a little rough bedding," Louise says. "I'll be fine on the floor."

"It's fine," Tabitha says again.

"Tabitha, really I can…" Louise's counter argument is interrupted by a yawn. Louise wasn't certain if she was tired of arguing, or just tired in general. She decided it didn't matter and the solution to both was to just go to sleep. "Alright, if it's okay with you. Good night Tabitha."

"Night," Tabitha responds.

***Scene Break***

A few evenings after Louise, Tabitha and Kirche had first arrived in Vindobona:

"Got the mail darling?" Kirche asks as Louise walks into their room.

"Yeah, apparently," Louise says as she looks over the two letters in her hand. "Not sure how that mail exactly got to this hotel in the first place, but I've got it now."

"Would you like me to explain the Germanian mail system?" Kirche asks. "That'd be an interesting way to kill a few hours."

"I'll pass," Louise says as she hands one letter to Kirche and keeps the other for herself. "Seriously, how would they even know I'm at this hotel room."

"It's possible to know anything about anyone if you know the right person," Kirche says as she opens up the envelope. "You go first. Who's your letter from?"

"Um… Give me a second," Louise says as she opens up the envelope and briefly reads the letter. _Well, considering it starts with_ Dear Shrimp,_ I don't think I need to guess who it's from. Let's see…_

"Well, things are fine at the castle," Louise says. "Henrietta's doing a fine job of holding down the fort, as expected, and Siesta's really mad because some new recruits won't stop bugging her."

"Why's that?" Tabitha asks.

"Yeah, what's wrong with some newbies asking someone more experienced?" Kirche asks.

_Well, apparently they're the maids I won off of Mott, and they keep bugging Siesta, asking when I'm coming back to the castle so they can personally thank me for saving them from that "monster," so they say. … Of course I don't really think I can mention any of that to Kirche or she'll find some way to turn that into ammunition against me._

"Well, these ones are super clingy or something," Louise says dismissively. "I dunno, I'll have a talk with her when we get back. Your letter?"

"Oh, our darling prince Elden finally caught wind that we're in town," Kirche says. "He's completely disregarded our request for an audience and instead turned it into a demand that we see him as soon as we're available."

"Well he seems… Nice?" Louise offers.

"I mean, if you twist the definition of the word enough," Kirche says. "So, I guess this means that tomorrow we're finally going to be talking with our mutual friend."

"And I can pay off that stupid bet and go home," Louise says, a sense of relief in her voice. "Oh, I can't wait."

"Well, best get everything ready for tomorrow then," Kirche says. "I'm sure Elden is just dying to see us."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author Notes:**

It feels weird posting a chapter and it not having taken several months. Well, it's a good things so it's okay. In this chapter negotiations went reasonably well, but of course we can't have it go too well or that'd be anti-climatic. Thusly, a game. Next chapter. Next chapter there'll be a game. This chapter was just talking, and I liked it for that. People talking to each other is one of my favorite things to write. Elden was interesting to write for. While he is a somewhat whiny and childish character, he does know how he's supposed to act, he's just not good at it. That'll show a little bit more during the game next chapter, so I'll talk about it a bit more then. What game will they be playing? Find out next time!

**Chapter 8**

It was finally the day Louise and her friends were to meet with Prince Elden, and Louise couldn't feel any better

"Darling, you look like your pet goldfish just drowned," Kirche noted as they sat in the waiting room.

"I wonder why," Louise says, not really in the mood to talk to Kirche.

"Shouldn't you be happier than this?" Kirche asks. "We're gonna walk in, say a few things, get everything sorted and we'll be a-ok!"

"Simple," Tabitha agrees.

"For starters I still don't want to be here, but there's only so many times I can say that," Louise begins. "Furthermore, I'm about to drop dead because of how little sleep I got. What's the point of forcing us to show up at six in the morning if he's just going to keep us waiting until eleven? Considering you kept me up rather late last night, I'm running on nearly empty. Also this is the worst castle I've ever been in. The decorations are so bright and distracting that either I'm getting a headache, or I've had a headache and this is making it worse."

Louise was also prepared to complain about the lack of sleep not being helped by Tabitha's sleep-hugging, but Louise felt that bringing it up would be rather mean to Tabitha, and it was not necessarily that big of a deal compared to the others. It wasn't like Tabitha was strangling Louise in her sleep or anything, Louise just wasn't much of a physical person, so the contact kept her on edge for the rest of the night.

"Yeah, that would explain the mood," Kirche notes. "Well, cheer up Darling. This'll take a few minutes at most, then we head back to Tristain and you can nap all you want."

"I'd really like that," Louise says. "I'd like that a lot."

Louise would have liked to spend the next few minutes thinking about how nice a nap would be, but unfortunately for her a royal guard walked into the waiting room.

"Queen Louise, soon-to-be Queen Kirche and guest?" the guard asks.

"Have a name," Tabitha says, almost angrily.

"Are you royalty of some kind?" the guard asks. "No? Then I've no reason to actually know your name."

"Good to see the employees are welcoming," Louise notes.

"Nah, there just idiots," Kirche says. "They can't remember that many people so they only keep track of the _really_ important people."

"I'll have you know that I graduated top of my class!" the guard complains. "I resent the accusation that intelligence is up for question."

"And he still can't remember more then three or four names," Kirche says. "Here I was thinking that Germania had a pretty good education system. What a shame to learn I was wrong."

"Why you-"

"Didn't you have a reason for calling us?" Louise interrupts before the fight escalates any further.

"… Yes, Your Highness," the guard says, not content with the shift in topic. "The prince is ready for you three. He's waiting for you in the throne room."

"Thank you sir," Louise says with a slight bow of her head. "We'll see him at once. Kirche, mind leading the way for us?"

"No problem Darling," Kirche says. "I know this place like the back of my hand. Way better then some dumb guard who probably couldn't find his way back to his post."

"You damn-"

"Okaywe'reoffhavefunwithyourjob!" Louise gets the words out as quickly as possible before grabbing Kirche and Tabitha by the hand and dragging them away.

"See you later Mister Guard," Kirche says with a wink and a smile.

"My name's Tabitha," Tabitha reminds the guard before he's out of earshot.

After putting a reasonable amount of distance between her party and the guard, Louise finally stopped moving.

"What was that?!" Louise exclaims.

"Oh, we've never gotten along with the guards," Kirche says as she twirls a lock of her hair around with her finger. "They're loyal to a fault. Since they're only required to be nice to the royal family, they don't bother with manners when it comes to anyone else. Something that could really use some touching up, in my opinion, but not really something you can do anything about."

"Don't like them," Tabitha says.

"Yeah, I don't get what their thing with Tabitha is," Kirche says, throwing a glance at her companion. "Racism or something? I don't know why, we haven't exactly had that much racial tension in the past few thousand years. Ah, that's for later. Come on Darling, let's head to the throne room."

"Yay," Louise says as dryly as possible. "Another headache."

Kirche led Louise and Tabitha down a hallway, with their final destination being in front of a grand, highly decorated (even when compared to the rest of the castle) set of double doors.

"Ready to meet the prince?" Kirche asks.

"How much does my answer matter in this situation?" Louise responds.

"Very little," Tabitha gives Louise the answer she expected.

"Well, here we go," Kirche says as she pushes the door open.

The three walk past the door and into the throne room. Louise immediately hated everything about it. Everything in the room was so _bright_ and hard to look at. Gold and silver linings on the walls, fanciful mirrors decorating the walls, several crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and all sorts of polished metal statues are almost random spots in the room. She would catch a glimpse of something shining so brightly that it hurt her head and would look away, only to have something even more bright and garish enter her vision. Eventually Louise's vision settled on the one thing in the room that wasn't blindingly bright, the central throne. Sitting on the throne, was the person she had come so far to have a conversation with.

"Greetings, Queen Louise Valliere, ruler of Tristain," Elden says from his throne. "I am the crown prince of Germania, Prince Elden. It is certainly a pleasure to meet you face to face."

_… __Not a very imposing ruler,_ Louise thinks to herself as she looks at Elden. Although he was sitting down, Louise could tell that he wasn't a very tall figure, even if he was taller than her. He was of a rather average build, not particularly bulky, but not exceptionally thin either. He had somewhat wavy blonde hair that came down to his shoulders, and a pair of bright green eyes. He was wearing an outfit that seemed less like royal wear, and more like what someone _thought_ royal wear looked like. His white, long sleeved shirt had shoulders that poofed out to an almost unreadable level, and his pants were embroidered with some kind of vine pattern running down the legs. In addition, he also wore a fancy cape that was decorated with the crest of the Germanian royal family, a small crown in side of a circle, with wings on either side that extended outside of the circle. Louise's thought immediately turned to the obvious question: _Wait, why doesn't Tristain have a royal crest?_

"Now, it is my understanding th- owowowowow!"

"You idiot, what do you think you're doing?" Kirche asks as she pulls Elden out of the throne by his ear. "What, did you think your dad wouldn't mind if he found out you'd been sitting in his chair?"

"O-ow, let go already!" Elden says as he struggles to get out of Kirche's grip. "Hey, you're gonna tear my ear off, stop already!"

"… A real imposing ruler, isn't he?" Louise asks.

"Definitely," Tabitha agrees.

"Seriously," Kirche says as she lets go of Elden's ear. "Acting all high and mighty on your daddy's high chair, huh? Who do you think you're trying to impress with this little set up?"

"Dad's out on some business, he won't be back for like an hour, I'll be fine!" Elden says as he rubs his ear to try and alleviate the pain a bit. "Besdies, I am going to be a king soon, aren't I? I figured if I started acting like one you'd start coming around."

"If I'm not falling for you when you're acting like your normal childish self, why would I fall for you forcing yourself to act like an idiot?" Kirche asks.

"I'm acting like a king, not an idiot!" Elden protests.

"An idiot king," Tabitha notes.

"Kings can't be idiots!" Elden protests once again. "They're busy leading their kingdoms to fame and glory! Idiots can't do that! Therefore, I can't be an idiot, because I'm going to be doing that."

"… This idiot is the one I have to talk to?" Louise asks in disbelief.

"Speaking of talking, why are you here?" Elden asks as he turns to Louise and attempts to regain control of the conversation. "I mean, I've expected you to show up in a week or two, because of the wedding, but you're hear really early. Something about business, was it?"

"Of a sort," Louise says. "You see… You see, it's hard to want to talk about much when the other party won't stop sizing you up?"

"Hm? Oh, right, sorry," Elden apologizes. "I was just kind of surprised. I expected you to be a lot shorter."

"Excuse me?" Louise asks.

"I obviously never really heard about you before you became queen, and all I heard after you were crowned was about how some childish runt took the crown," Elden explains. "I heard a lot of really negative stuff about you. Really emphasized how childlike you were for some reason."

"… I need to have a long chat with some people when I get back," Louise grumbles under her breath.

"I'd probably hear some different stuff now that you're a bit farther into your reign, but I've been busy," Elden says. "So yeah, you kind of caught me off guard. Wasn't expecting you to look so… Unchildlike? That's a word, isn't it?"

"Not even remotely," Kirche informs him.

"Ah, doesn't matter," Elden says as he walks towards the throne. He prepares to sit down on the throne, but a quick glare from Kirche changes his mind. "Either way, not like you're really my type."

"… I feel like I should be insulted, but I can't muster up the anger," Louise says.

"So, you're business?" Elden says, ignoring that comment. "I mean, you personally came all the way from Tristain with my fiancé and her best friend. I imagine it has some semblance of importance, right?"

"Right," Louise says, then immediately stops because she realizes she doesn't know how to begin. "Okay… So… How to put this…"

"Hey, take your time," Elden says. "Like I said, Dad's not gonna be back for a while, we've got plenty of time to work whatever this is out. Plus this is a pretty informal, off the records thing. No need to be all royal and formal."

"How nice of you," Kirche says. "You've never been that patient with me."

"Uncharacteristic," Tabitha agrees.

"Hey, I'm a plenty patient guy!" Elden says. "You're just too impatient yourself to notice."

"Right then," Louise says. "If no one here is patient, I suppose I'll just get it out then. Prince Elden?"

"Yes, Queen Valliere?" Elden asks, trying to adopt a royal attitude.

"I need you to call off your wedding with Kirche," Louise says.

"… Uh… Wanna run that by me again?" Elden asks.

"You're going to be marrying Kirche in a few weeks, right?" Louise asks. "I'm here to ask you to call off the wedding."

"Right, so I didn't misunderstand you the first time," Elden says with a nod of his head. "Now. Want to let me know why this matters to you at all? Why do you care if I marry Kirche?"

"I don't care that much," Louise admits. "However, I owe a favor to someone who does care."

"… Oh, I get it," Elden says with another nod of his head, before turning to Kirche. "Kirche, what the heck?! You really hate me that much that you feel the need to call in a royal favor? Is the thought of marrying me really that repulsive?!"

"Tie myself to you for the rest of my life?" Kirche asks. "Not appealing."

"B-b-but you'll be queen!" Elden offers. "Who doesn't want to be the monarch of a nation, doesn't everyone want that kind of power? Wait, of course you'd hate that, you can't stand politics."

"Aww, you know me so well," Kirche says with a smile.

"W-well that's okay!" Elden says. "I can handle all that stuff on my own, you wouldn't have to deal with any of that political nonsense! I'd be king, I can handle that stuff easily!"

"Pretty sure I heard that you're kind of unreliable," Louise says. "Can't do anything without help from Kirche, I think was it."

"That's completely untrue!" Elden exclaims. "I-I mean, of course I can't do everything perfectly on my own. Everyone needs a little help sometimes right?"

"Homework, essays, chores, school projects" Tabitha says.

"W-well, I'm busy learning how to become king," Elden says. "I'll be way better at getting stuff done on my own once I'm actually on the throne."

"Doubtful, which is why I'm against this particular idea," Kirche says. "I'd rather not be your backseat driver when it comes to running a nation. That's just way more power and responsibility then I'm comfortable with having. Besides, you're a bit too young for me."

"We're the same age!" Elden protests.

"Then act like it," Kirche tells him.

Elden sighs, and sits down on the throne.

"Look, this conversation doesn't have a chance to go anywhere," Elden says as he scratches the back of his head. "I'm just a prince, I don't actually have the authority to call off something as important as a royal wedding. That's dad's field of work. It doesn't really matter what I say or agree to, I can't do anything about the wedding."

"Well couldn't you just marry someone instead of Kirche?" Louise offers.

"Are you offering yourself up?" Kirche asks Louise.

"Denied," Elden says. "Like I said, girls like you and Tabitha aren't my type."

"Why would I offer that?!" Louise yells. She takes a breath to calm down and proceeds with the explanation. "If you can't call off the marriage and it'll happen no matter what you say, couldn't you just marry someone other than Kirche? The wedding'll happen on time, except Kirche wouldn't have to marry you."

"I mean, probably," Elden says. "Two problems with that. One: I'd still have to show the new fiancé to dad and get his approval for it, and he's a bit of a stickler for that, considering this is for heir, you know? The only reason he's alright with Kirche is because he knows her dad, so he knows she'd be an alright queen. Second, and more importantly, I want to marry Kirche."

"Excuse me?" Kirche asks.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Elden responds. "I mean, we've known each other since we were kids and you've always been around to help me when I messed something up. I know you don't like it that much, but I do rely on you for a lot of stuff. Like… basically everything. Yeah, the child me that you've always had to do everything for would be a crappy king. I'd probably be worse then the Tristainian rulers. … Er, sorry, I meant the older ones, no offense intended to the present Queen."

"None taken, I know we've had some bad rulers in the past," Louise says.

"Phew, okay then," Elden says. "So yeah, even if I were to put my personal feelings aside, Kirche is the most obvious choice for queen. I want to be able to do everything myself, but for the situations where I can't do something, or I screw something up really badly it's nice to know that I can count on my queen to help me out so I don't wind up ruining Germania."

"… I had no idea you thought about it this much," Kirche says.

"Well, I have some free time when Dad's away on business," Elden says with a shrug. He hops out of the throne and walks over to Louise. "So, I have a proposition."

"No, the proposition's are suppose to go to your future wife, not me," Louise says.

"No, not that kind of proposition!" Elden exclaims. "A deal, you know? Something like that."

"Okay…" Louise says uncertainly.

"So, since you owe Kirche, you don't want me to marry her, but I want to marry her," Elden sums up the situation. "We're at an impasse here. So, what do two people do in this world when an impasse is met?"

"They play a game," Louise answer.

"Exactly," Elden says, right before he frowns. "Wait, don't you have like, a crappy win ratio?"

"I-It's improved substantially!" Louise informs him.

"Three is substantially higher then zero," Kirche agrees.

"Shut up," Louise tells her. "There's no problem with playing a game here. What terms are you thinking?"

"If you win I'll… Well I can't call off the marriage for reasons already gone over, but I'll try and find a different finacé," Elden says. "But if you lose, the wedding stays as is, and Kirche has to go on a date with me."

"A date?" Kirche asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah," Elden says sheepishly. "I mean, shouldn't married couples go on at least a few dates before the wedding? A-and I've… kind of always wanted to ask you out one one. It'll give me a chance to show you how much I've matured since we were children!"

"Seems reasonable," Tabitha says.

"I guess?" Louise says.

"Hey, as long as you win we have no problem," Kirche says. "You can do that much, right? You're gotten pretty good, right?"

_Got to sound confident so no one here underestimates me,_ Louise thinks to herself. _Have to make a good impression on them!_

"Um… Probably?"

_Nailed it_. Louise is briefly amazed at her ability to find new ways to disappoint herself.

"Well, that's the best that I can hope for," Kirche says with a sigh. "Either way you're the one making the bet. Does it sound fine to you?"

Louise thinks about it for a minute and comes to a conclusion.

"Well, no it doesn't," she says. "I mean, the terms on their own are fine, but I'd rather not make a bet when I don't even know what game I'd be playing."

"Ah!" Elden exclaims. "Right, forgot about that. That's kind of the most important part, isn't it? Hmm… What to play, what to play… Got it! Alright Queen Valliere, follow me. We have a game room set up just for these kinds of situations. I'll show you the game, tell you a bit about how it works and you can decide then. Sound good?"

"Sounds a lot better," Louise says with a nod of her head. "Lead the way Prince Elden."


	10. Chapter 10

**Author Notes:**

Fun fact, this chapter used to be about two paragraphs. It was supposed to be a few paragraphs setting up the game and then we'd start the game and get it all done in one chapter. … That's obviously not happening this chapter.

First, Jakob and Felecia. … Wait, why am I talking about them, they're not important in the slightest. They're filler characters to take up the spots on Elden's team. They'll talk a bit more and actually show their personalities a bit next chapter, but for the purposes of this chapter right here they don't need to exist. They'll do more next chapter and then we'll never see them again after this arc. … Probably.

Anyway, the game they're playing might sound familiar to some people. It's a fully 3D version of this pretty awesome game called Cannon Brawl. Cannon Brawl is… Wait, I don't need to tell you, you have google! Go google Cannon Brawl. In fact, go buy Cannon Brawl, it's a fun game to play with friends. The game being played in this story isn't exactly Cannon Brawl, but it is inspired by it. The major difference is that Cannon Brawl is a 2D game, whereas this story's game is in 3D. Why are they playing a game that's basically Cannon Brawl? Because I like that game and thought of some cool stuff to do with it. It's better than the old idea I had for the games they'd play, but I'll talk about that a bit more later.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 9**

Elden led Louise and her group through the castle until they entered a notably large room. A room that was filled to the brim with various machinations and creations. Louise noticed a maid and a butler making sure that the various contraptions didn't fall over and break. She silently expressed sympathy towards their work, then waited for Elden to explain what any of this was.

"All right, welcome to the Germanian Royal Game Room," Elden says, sounding rather proud of himself. "We've got set-ups for at least twenty different board games, tables for ten different card games, a few for chess and checkers, there's a… I think that's roulette wheel or something, there's a… Slot machine? Maybe? Looks too weird to be a slot machine. I think this is supposed to be some kind of punishment game?"

_What even is half of this?_ Louise thinks to herself. _Maybe ten percent of this room even remotely qualifies as a game, the rest is just random junk that I don't even want to know about. … I'm pretty that's a torture rack in the corner. I'm keeping silent. That's the best option. Silence._

"Oh wow, this place got really cluttered since I've been gone," Kirche notes. "What's wrong Elden, kept collecting a bunch of stuff and didn't have anywhere to put it?"

"Believe it or not, that one isn't on me," Elden says. "It's actually on those two. Hey, Jakob, Felecia, come here for a second."

The servants came over when called and bowed towards Louise, Kirche and Tabitha.

"Greetings Your majesty," the maid says. "I'm Prince Elden's personal maid, Felecia."

"Greetings, I am his butler, Jakob," The butler says as well. "We are honored to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you as well," Louise says.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Kirche says, still thinking about the mess strewn about the game room. "Jakob's a pack rat and Felecia can't clean properly. Really should get some professionals to clean."

"I can do my job just fine I'll have you know," Felecia's tone didn't quite match the words. She sounded like she should be annoyed, but her actual tone was more of indifference. Louise assumed that she and Kirche shared exchanges like that a lot.

"Still too clumsy," Tabitha says.

"Hey hey, none of that," Elden says. "We came here for very important business and there's no time to get sidetracked. Jakob, Felecia, assuming the game does end up happening, you'll be on my team, okay?"

"Perfectly acceptable," Jakob says. "I'm assuming the usual?"

"That'd be a good assumption," Elden says with a nod. "Mind getting it set up?"

"Not at all sir," Jakob says as he walks over to one of the junk covered walls of the game room. Looking closely at that specific wall Louise noticed a few things that stood out amongst the junk.

"Aren't those Werebeast game pods?" Louise asks, motioning towards the six machines lining the walls.

"You'd really have to work to convince me to call them 'pods' but yes," Elden says. "They're machines built for the Werebeast's video games."

"Elden, we're not playing-"

"Yes, we are," Elden cuts Kirche off.

"Really?" Tabitha asks, her eyes lighting up.

"Kirche what just happened?" Louise asks. "Tabitha looks like a dog who's expecting to get a treat. I'm not used to seeing her show emotion, it's scaring me."

"Well, apparently you and Elden are going to be playing Tabitha's favorite game," Kirche says.

"No no," Elden says. "The three of you are going to play against me and my servants. 3v3 should be fine, right? That way you and Tabitha can help out Louise, since I doubt she has much experience with video games."

"Perfect," Tabitha says, sounding rather determined.

"Not it isn't, I've never even seen a video game being played!" Louise protests.

"We'll explain once we're in the game," Elden says. "It'll be fine."

"And why are these old Werebeast machines even here in the first place, haven't there been much better ones made?" Louise asks. "Besides, why would fairies be playing Werebeast games?"

"Well, it's an import and it was pretty cheap," Elden says with a shrug. "Still works fine. I mean sure, it can't play the newer games, but that's hardly an issue. Plenty of old software that's a ton of fun and way better than most of the Werebeast's recent stuff."

"Older doesn't mean better," Tabitha says, almost starting to sound upset. "New games are more technically impressive and overall made much better than the hasty projects of the old days.."

"Tabitha, we're not having this argument again," Elden says. "I'm not dismissing all the new stuff, there's some good ones, but there's no uniqueness like the old days! There's a lot of knock offs, you know? Just people chasing what's popular. How many card games have the Werebeasts made in the last year? Like a million! There's no creativity like the old games!"

"More creativity and interesting mechanics now than all the carbon copies that permeated throughout the older VR sets," Tabitha says. "Plenty of plagiarizing back then as well. Much worse then, in fact. Plus, less hacking, cheating and viruses on the newer systems too. Better security overall."

As Tabitha and Elden started exchanging various pros and cons regarding older and newer Werebeast games, Kirche let out a sigh.

"Every damn time," she says in resignation. "I need to stop letting these two be in the same room at any time."

"Kirche, Tabitha is starting to talk in complete paragraphs," Louise notes. "Should I tell Henrietta to start preparing for a hurricane or some other world ending event?"

"No, this is just how it's been since we've been kids," Kirche says. "Tabitha's a fan of newer stuff, Elden's into the retro games. They never shut up about it. Oi! You two, aren't we here for something important?!"

Kirche's sudden shout startled Tabitha and Elden, both of whom quickly fell silent. Elden nervously scratched the back of his head, while Tabitha blushed and tried to hide behind Kirche.

"Right, got kind of sidetracked," Elden says. "Anyway, games. We got 'em. We're (probably) gonna play 'em. Got it set up yet Jakob?"

"All ready sir," Jakob says as he flips a switch, causing the machines to whir to life. "And I've already called another servant to man the controls and make sure everything works while we're playing. He'll be here in a few moments."

"Awesome," Elden says with a grin. "All right, grab a seat everyone. We're going for a ride."

"Can we not?" Louise asks. "I'm content with something normal. Like poker. Can we play poker? Or coin flips. Please?"

"Come on," Tabitha says as she pulls Louise over to the machines. "This is fun."

"Kirche, help me!" Louise exclaims.

"Sorry Darling, no choice but to go with the flow," Kirche says with an apologetic smile as she follows them over. "It'll be fine, this game's pretty simple. Sort of."

"That's not helping!" Louise complains as she sits down in one of the machines.

From left to right, the seating order was Tabitha, Louise, Kirche, Elden, Felecia, Jakob. A third servant had come in, just like Jakob said, and started messing with the buttons and switches of the control panel.

"Ready for your first time playing a video game?" Kirche asks Louise.

"I'm ready to go home, does that count?" Louise asks.

"It'll work," Tabitha says.

"Then I guess I'm good. Start the show," Louise finally gives up.

"You heard her, flip the switch!" Elden exclaims.

"Close your eyes," Tabitha tells Louise. "It'll be easier."

"What'll be eas-aah!" Louise is surprised by the sudden shift in location. She had suddenly gone from sitting down in the Germanian Game Room, to standing in some weird digital highway. "Oh god, what is any of this?"

"Don't worry Darling, it's just loading all the data," Kirche explains.

"Huh? Kirche, Tabitha? Where are the other three?" Louise asks.

"They're loading into a separate instance," Kirche explains. "It's a way for teams to discuss strategy before the game begins, but in our case it's kind of pointless."

"Why is everything falling? What is any of this stuff that's floating around? What even is a 'separate instance?' What is- wait, why am I naked?! Wait again, why is my body glowing completely white?!" Louise has a lot of questions.

"Clothing loads last," Kirche says. "Some games put the player in a fancy outfit, so you look like that until the game loads the proper game and accompanying outfit. Since the game we're playing doesn't have any fancy costumes, you'll be in your usual outfit once everything loads. Your body being white is because your outfit hasn't loaded yet, for reasons just explained. The old systems didn't have the ability to scan anything past the clothes, so it just doesn't bother rendering anything that's covered. Newer systems can, but usually don't for modesty's sake."

"Kirche, I've decided I hate video games," Louise says as she attempts to cover up her non-existant body.

"You'll like it more once you start playing," Kirche assures her friend. "And stop trying to cover up, there's nothing to hide at the moment. Anyway, we'll save the details for once we're in the game, since it'll be much easier, but the game we're going to be playing is best described as a strategy game. Place your units is proper positions and try to take down your opponent's base. Simple as that."

"So it's like chess?" Louise asks.

"Eeeeeh, in concept, I guess," Kirche says in an unsure tone. "Not so much in mechanics, but you'll pick it up quickly enough. We should be loading in right about now.

On cue, the data highway disappeared and Louise found herself standing on top of a castle. After confirming that her body was both clothed and no longer incandescent, facts that made her sigh in relief, she took in her surroundings. Tabitha and Kirche were on the roof with her, and her castle appeared to be situated in a nearly empty field. Nearly empty, as not terribly far away from her own, rather pathetically small, castle was another equally pathetic and small castle. If Louise squinted she could barely make out the form of Elden and his servants standing on the roof of the structure.

"… Well the scenary's nice, I guess," Louise says, as she attempted to find something to say. "But why's the castle so dingy and tiny?"

"_Makes the game easier to play."_

Louise squeals in surprise and fell backwards. When she looks up to see what had spooked her she notices a small rectangle that appeared to be holding the visage of Prince Elden.

"… Why's the prince in the tiny box?" Louise asks.

"This really is your first time playing a video game, isn't it?" Kirche asks. "Since Elden's all the way on that castle he couldn't talk to us about much, could he?"

"Window helps communication," Tabitha says.

"_Exactly,"_ Elden says. _"This way I don't need to destroy my voice to explain the rules to you. Ready for a tutorial?"_

"Um… Sure?" Louise says as she stands up. "How exactly does this game work?"

"_The basic idea of the game is to destroy your opponent's castle_," Elden begins. _"Once their castle is eradicated, you win. See this green bar on the right side of my window?"_

"Um… Yeah, this one, right?" Louise asks as she points at an elongated rectangle hanging off the side of Elden's window.

"_I can't see what you're pointing at, but I'll assume you're pointing at the right thing."_

"Don't worry, she is," Kirche assures him.

"_Awesome. That bar is my castle's HP gauge. The more damage you inflict on my castle, the more that bar will start to empty. Once it's completely empty you win. Of course I'll be trying to do the same to your castle."_

"So the winner is whoever empty's the bar first?" Louise asks.

"Bingo," Kirche says. "See, you're learning fast."

"Two questions," Louise says. "How do I go about destroying his castle, and what happens during the attack? Wouldn't we be in serious danger?"

"_We'll get to the first in a minute, but let's start with that second question," _Elden says. _"Let's see… Ah! Here we go!"_

Suddenly a large cannon appears on a floating platform right in front of Louise's castle. Before Louise can ask what the artillery is there for it opens fire, launching three cannonballs at Louise's group. Louise screams in terror and closes her eyes, bracing for the end of her unfortunately short life. She is then surprised when she hears the cannonballs exploding, but she's still intact. Opening her eyes to see what just happened, she sees a barrier surrounding her and her friends and shielding them from the cannons.

"… Okay that makes sense," Louise says, trying to ignore Kirche's snickering.

"_It's a game, we can afford to set up cool safety measures like that,"_ Elden says with a grin. _"It's really awesome. You could drop a bombardment on those things and not get even a speck of dust on you! And don't worry, it also works for when the castle gets demolished. That way you won't fall down and get crushed by rubble. That'd be a pretty awful way to finish any game, wouldn't it?"_

"The less games that end with me dying the happier I am," Louise agrees.

"_Now, as for how to properly wage war, there should be another window nearby, do you see it?"_

"Here you go Darling," Kirche says as she slides the window over to Louise. "Since it's a team fight we'll each get out own. This way we can look at different views of the field and not have to crowd around one screen. See?"

Kirche demonstrated by showing her window to Louise. On the screen was an overhead view of the map, with the castle on each side. Kirche tapped a button on the screen and the view shifted to a profile shot of the battlefield. Another tap and it became a view of the battlefield from in front of the castle's gates.

"Any questions?" Kirche asks.

"Don't think so," Louise mutters as she looks at the window. Across the top of the screen was _**Please select attack. **_Beneath the heading was two rows of four circles, each circle showing a different picture. Circle one had a picture of a charging regiment of soldiers, circle 2 had a cannon, circle 3 a drill and so on. Louise looked at the images with a curious expression. After looking at it for a few seconds she has an idea. She taps circle 2, and the screen changes to the overhead map view.

_**Please select location**_**.**

Louise thought for a moment and tapped the space in front of Elden castle. A cannon on a floating platform materialized right in front of her opponent's castle and after a few seconds to charge up began firing.

"Oh, I get it!" Louise says. "It's like a war game simulator! We play the role of the tactician and we try to figure out the best way to use our troop and resources to defeat the enemy!"

"_Now you're getting it!"_ Elden says. _"Feel free to mess around with that for a minute. We had the game launch in tutorial mode so we could teach you the basics one step at a time."_

Louise began toying with the window in front of her, summoning various armaments at various points on the map. She figured out pretty quickly that she could make the weapons change their target if she tapped them on her screen and rotated them their. She also learned that she could only summon troops in front of her own castle. _Makes sense, you can't just drop troops in on any point of a battlefield, you need to deploy them from somewhere_, Louise thought to herself. Louise also noticed that there seemed to be way more then just eight ways of attack in the game. _Must be some kind of competitive balance thing, you can only pick eight_, Louise reasons. _That's lame. I want all the ways to blow something up. _

"Okay, I think I've got it," Louise says after a few more minutes of messing around with the various weapons she could will into existence. "But the game can't be that simple, right? I mean, there has to be some other rules and stuff, right?"

"_Yep. No way it could be that simple,"_ Elden says.

"If you don't mind, I'll take care of this explanation," Kirche says. "It'll be easier since I can actually point at her screen. Go ahead and flip the switch."

"_Alrighty then_,_"_ Elden says before he starts tinkering with the controls. _"There you go. HUD all set up?"_

"All set up," Kirche informs him. "Thanks El. Okay, Louise, look at your window again."

"Alright. Oh, it changed!" Louise notices.

"Good eye," Tabitha compliments Louise.

"There are two major things to keep an eye on," Kirche says. "The first is this little guy in the bottom left. See the little balloon with a flag on it?"

"I do," Louise says. "It's a… 'Territorial Balloon?' What's that mean?"

"In the interest of fair game, you can't just place whatever artillery or bombardment anywhere. Then you'd just place a bunch of cannons in front of your opponents castle and call it a day, right? That's no fun. So, to stop that from happening you have those balloons. Once you place a balloon it emits an aura that allows you to place a weapon there, as well as stop your opponent from placing something there. Balloons can be destroyed though, so keep that in mind. Balloons are free to make and place, but there's a limit to how far out you can place them at first, and there's a forty five second delay between when you can place balloons, so think about positioning carefully. It's the tutorial so the delay's not on. Give it a shot."

Louise touched the balloon icon and the weapon placement screen popped up again. It seems she could only place the balloon close to her castle to begin with. Louise figured out the basic strategy there quite quickly. _Okay, so I place balloons to increase my radius of attack, as well as deny space to the opponent. But acting rashly will cost me strategic positions that can be eaten up by my opponent. I see. Wait a minute._

"What do you mean balloons are free?" Louise asks Kirche. "Do other attacks cost some kind of money?"

"You're pretty quick on the uptake," Kirche says with a smile. "Well, I suppose your problem was never _understanding_ the game, so much as it was _playing_ them. Anyway, yes. You need money to build things. See these little gold dots on the map? There are certain constructs that you place over them to start mining them for profits every fifteen or twenty seconds. That will get you money to make more constructs. Stronger constructs need more money to build. That about covers the basics I think. Any questions?"

"… Um… Probably not," Louise says.

"Don't sweat it," Kirche says. "Me and Tabby are experts at this game. You don't need to worry about a thing. You'll pick it up as you go. There's even room for error. Most sets we play tend to be best of three, so you've got room to screw up a bit."

"_So feel like this will be an okay game?"_ Elden asks.

_I get the basics of the game fine, but this game's still completely new to me_, Louise thinks to herself. _This entire idea is completely foreign to me, there's a stupidly small chance I'd be able to pull anything off. … That said, this might actually be my best chance to actually follow through on that favor. After all, I may be completely inexperienced, but Tabitha and Kirche are experts who'll be helping me out. On my own I'd declined immediately, but it it's a team game…_

"I think this is acceptable," Louise answers with a nod of her head.

"_Perfect! Okay, review the rules of the bet so there's no confusion. The teams will be Queen Louise, Kirche and Tabitha on Team Blue, and me, Felecia and Jakob on Team Red. We'll be playing this game of war to determine whether or not I marry Kirche. The winner will be whoever wins two of the three games we'll be playing. Winning the game involves reducing the opposing castle's HP to zero, while remaining standing yourself. If Queen Valliere wins I will tell my father I won't be marrying Kirche and attempt to find another fiancé in time for the wedding. If I win, Kirche will marry me as currently planned, and will go on a date with me prior to the wedding. Are these terms acceptible?"_

"Seems fine to me," Kirche says.

"Acceptable," Tabitha says.

"I accept," Louise says.

"_Awesome! Let's get started then. Aschente."_

"_Aschente,"_ Jakob and Felecia say as well.

"Aschente," Louise, Tabitha and Kirche call in unison.

"_Pick your eight units for this first match and we can begin. Take your time to think of a good strategy, you've got five minutes to decide."_

Louise looks at her units very carefully. Considering she had never played this game before the amount of options made her head spin.

"U-U-Um… Wh-what do I do?" Louise asks no one in particular. "Too many options. Too many."

"Well let's see," Kirche says. "No idea what strategy El will start off with. Probably best to start with a basic set up that can handle a variety of problems. Once we see what strategy he's going for we can start thinking of a more specialized set up."

"B-basic… Right," Louise says as she tries to pull herself together. "So basic cannon… the regiments seem good-"

"Denied," Tabitha says. "Maybe next round."

"What's wrong with them?" Louise asks. "We're going basic, right?"

"Louise, you can only spawn regiments at your base, remember?" Kirche asks. "They'd be blasted to pieces before they could get halfway across the map. Yes, there's construct you can place to spawn regiments there, but considering regiments aren't a very strong, it's kind of a waste of slots that could be used on something more potent."

"Frost cannon?" Tabitha asks.

"No, we don't know if he'd be using anything that we'd need to slow down," Kirche says. "It's possible, but I'm not expecting him to open with it. Basic cannon, mining house for gold are easy picks since we can use those for a lot of different things."

"Shield ray?" Tabitha asks.

"Good idea," Kirche says as she taps on the icon. "Always good to have some protections. Keep towers and our castle safe. Five more. Hospital?"

"Next round," Tabitha says. "If he plays offensively we can use it. If he plays more defensively then it's be a waste of a slot."

"I don't really agree, but I suppose I see where you're coming form," Kirche gives a shrug. "We can hold off on it. How about a magnet tower? We can go for the bread and butter magnet and shield."

"Seems fine," Tabitha agree. "Good for disorientation."

"That's what I was going for!" Kirche says with a grin. "Oh you know me so well. Bomb walkers or lasers for a second offensive tool?"

Tabitha actually thinks about that one for a second.

"Bomb walkers," Tabitha settles on. "They're cheaper and they come out more quickly. They'll help keep the heat off while the cannons are reloading."

"I see, I see," Kirche sees exactly what's going through Tabitha's head. "That's what, five constructs? Three more. I'm thinking factory, clock tower and jewelers. Jewelers for a little more cash, factory to make our constructs more potent and clock tower to speed up the cool down and offset the factory a bit. Seem like a good opening set up?"

"A good opener," Tabitha agrees.

"What do you think Darling?" Kirche asks Louise.

"I… I… Bomb… Wha…" Louise was helplessly lost.

"You okay there Darling?" Kirche sounds somewhat worried.

"I… I was almost confident for a moment," Louise says. "'This game's simply enough, just place cannons and don't let your opponent do the same!' I thought it'd be nice and simple, just use different explosives to blow up your opponent. None of that was nice and simple! I know what words you were using but not in that order!"

"It'll be fine," Tabitha says, giving Louise a pat on the back.

"Yeah, don't worry Louise, it's really is kind of simple," Kirche says. "You'll pick it up once you start playing, okay?"

"I used to think like that," Louise says. "That was back when I thought this game only had cannons and regiments."

"… Well, you're being a real mood killer," Kirche says. "Don't worry, we'll help you out here. We're a team now."

"Right… Team," Louise says. "At least someone knows what's going on. Whatever, let's start. We're good, right?"

"We're set," Kirche says. She presses the "READY" button on her window. A green flag suddenly appears on top of their castle, signaling to their opponent that they've readied up.

"_Sure you've got everything?"_ Elden's voice pipes in though his window. _"The first round determines a lot of things in a competitive game."_

"As ready as we'll ever be," Louise replies.

"_Fine by me. Let's get started."_

A green flag appears above Elden's castle. A countdown appears on every player's window, signaling their chance to make any last minute changes.

_**3…**_

_**2…**_

_**1…**_

_**ROUND START!**_

The first round had finally begun.


	11. Chapter 10-1

**Chapter 10.1**

**Round 1:**

**Starting funds: 200 gold**

**Team Louise's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Shield Ray (75 gold), Magnet Tower (100 gold), Bomb Walkers (60 gold), Jewelers (250 gold), Factory (150 gold), Clock Tower (200 gold).**

**Team Elden's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Laser Tower (125 gold), Hospital (100 gold), Driller (100 gold), Bomb Walkers (60 gold), Clock Tower (200 gold), Warhead (2500 gold).**

"Alright then, Let's start simple," Kirche says, dragging her team's first territorial balloon onto the field. "Louise, think you can guess what our starting strategy is going to be?"

"I don't know what half of these things even do," Louise answers. "So my guess would be our strategy is to knock his castle down."

"Close enough," Kirche says with a sigh. "Okay, our goal with this set up is to set up a strong enough offense that we can overwhelm him, but keep enough money in the bank to set up defenses if we need to. It's a good enough general strategy that we can afford to not plan any counterattacks yet. Those come later."

"Forget counterattacks, how am I supposed to plan a regular attack?" Louise asks.

"I'm getting to that," Kirche assures the queen. "Every Mining House we set up over a gold spot gets us about 100 gold every thirty seconds and if a Jewelers is placed nearby, that goes up to 250."

"So that's how we make money," Louise says with a nod of her head. "Got it. Question though, why can't I see if there are any dots on the Prince's side of the map? That'd be good information for when we expand over there."

"Fog of war mechanic," Tabitha explains. "Opponent's field is obscured until you get there."

"Exactly," Kirche says. "It's built like that so you don't just know what your opponent is doing at all times. It'd take some of the strategy out of it if you always knew what towers your opponent had and where he was building them, wouldn't it? It'd make it really boring to go on the offensive when you know where every piece is."

"Okay, I can understand that," Louise says with a nod of her head. "So then how _do_ we go on the offensive?"

"We start basic and work out way up. You already know what cannons do, so I won't bother explaining those," Kirche says. "Bomb walkers spit out a little bomb with legs that walks in a straight line until it butts up against an object, at which point it explodes. They're not very potent explosives, but they can be fired somewhat quickly. On the converse, the cannons are a bit more explodey, but take longer to fire. So the idea there is…"

"Um…" Louise thinks about it for a second. "Use the bomb walkers to keep him on the defensive and then break through with the cannons?"

"Bingo," Kirche says with a wink. "We're still a bit too far away to do much damage, so let's set up our economy, sound good?"

"Sounds good," Louise says. She taps the screen and places a territorial balloon as far out as she can to gain some space. A quick look at the map shows two gold dots in reach, so Louise places a mining house on top of them.

"Okay, so that's some gold we can use," Louise says as she watches the gold counter slowly start ticking up. "What happens if the house is destroyed?"

"No more income," Tabitha says.

"Makes sense, I suppose," Louise says. "How do we keep that from happening?"

"Defensive options here," Kirche says as she points to the shield and magnet towers on the menu. "The shield tower projects a shield that can soak up some damage. If the shield is broken, it takes ten seconds to project a new one, assuming the tower isn't gone as well. The magnet tower attracts cannonballs and bombs, drawing them closer and throwing off their aim. It's got some good pull, but that usually means that the tower takes the damage instead and it's incredibly fragile. But, what if there were something a bit tougher that could soak up that damage instead of the magnet?"

"… Oh! The shield and magnet strategy you mentioned to Tabitha!" Louise says.

"Exactly," Kirche says with a smile. "Magnets never last long on their own, but get a good synergy going and you can stop a lot-"

*BZZZT*

A small explosion rocks their castle, almost knocking Louise off of her feet.

"Wh-what was that?" Louise asks.

"Tch," Kirche says, clearly annoyed. "Of course he leads with a damn laser tower."

"No honor," Tabitha says, almost sounding angry.

_"It's a legitimate strategy, Kir!"_ Elden's face pops up on their monitor. _"What's wrong with getting a little head start on the enemy?"_

"Wait, he could hear us talking the whole time?" Louise asks.

"Mic's only on during the game," Tabitha explains. "Muted during set up to avoid counterpicking."

"You know full well that lasers are cheap as hell!" Kirche complains to Elden. "El, what happened to that gentleman's agreement we had?"

_"I mean, this is a kind of serious game, so I figured it'd be okay to go all out,"_ Elden says with a smug grin.

"That's just a lame excuse!" Kirche complains. "Why don't you fight like a real man and get rid of the lasers?"

_"I'll consider it,"_ Elden responds. He puts a hand to his chin and considers it. _"Nope. Sorry Kir."_

Elden cuts the connection leaving the three alone.

"Damn it El!" Kirche exclaims. "Alright, Louise, place a few shields, we need wide protection now!"

_Yes, Your Majesty_, Louise thinks to herself as she place another territorial balloon followed by some shield towers on the landscape.

"Mind explaining the laser?" Louise asks.

"Ah, it's just a stupid cheap tower," Kirche says. "Like always spamming fireball in those tournament games the Dragonia love. Yeah, it's not broken or anything, but it's so damn annoying. They've got the highest reach out of any standard weapon so they can hit the opponent at any range, the shot comes out instantly and it isn't affected by the magnet towers, since there's no metal to attract. It's supposed to be offset by long charge up times, lower than average damage, and the fact that they can't shoot through shields but they're still way too good. Me and Tabitha are annoyed by them, and El enjoys annoying us, so he uses them a lot. Tabitha, send a request to the people who made this to weaken those lasers. They'll listen to you."

"I've sent five already," Tabitha replies.

"I say send another!" Kirche demands. "Afterwards, of course. We still have this to deal with. Louise, any chance we can get any offense? What's our territory looking like?"

"Um… We're approaching the halfway mark of the map," Louise answers.

"What? No we're not, the game just started," Kirche sounds confused. Once Louise shows her the map Kirche becomes even more confused. "How'd so much time pass?"

_Probably your monologues and arguments with the brat_, Louise thinks. "We've got plenty of room for offense, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, give me a second to think," Kirche says. "Let's see. That laser only hit us for five percent, but that can add up and he's probably already getting ready to set up some more. The shield should keep us fine for a bit. We need to go on the offense. Tabitha, standard formation, start placing cannons and bomb walkers, I'll set up the factories, Louise, place clock towers."

"Um… Sure… but, where and why?" Louise asks. "You're not helping me much, I'm still new to this."

"Factories make things more powerful, weapons hurt more, defenses are more potent and so on, but it makes them fire slower. Clock towers make things faster, which offsets the Factories. It's costly, but it packs a punch. Once it's all set up, focus on taking down whatever lasers he has. Those are our biggest problem."

"Understood," Tabitha says as she starts planting and aiming the attack towers.

"G-got it, I think," Louise says as she fumbles with her screen and tries to find the clock tower. Louise follows the lines of towers being built on her teams side of the field and places a few clock towers, keeping a close eye on their budget. Once their cannon array had been properly set up with some defense from a few extra shields, they were almost completely spent.

"… This better work," Louise notes. "We can't afford for it to fail."

_"If it makes you feel any better, we're running on empty too,"_ Jakob pipes in on the screen. _"Master's strategy isn't very fiscally sound."_

_"Neither is buying things for the sole purpose of hoarding them, but we let that one slide,"_ Felecia pipes up.

_"I'd buy less if you didn't keep breaking all my stuff,"_ Jakob complains.

_"Stop leaving your junk on the ground then!"_ Felecia counters. _"I don't just trip on nothing! There's always some random junk of yours on the fl-Aah!"_

*Thud*

"… Is she okay?" Louise asks.

_"Um… She tried taking a step towards Jakob, but she tripped on some dust and fell down,"_ Elden explains.

"… You can't trip on dust," Louise points out.

"Don't tell her that," Tabitha says. "She has a complex."

_"And Jakob's a hoarder!"_ Felecia fires back as she pulls herself off the floor. _"And I don't have a complex, that's not even how you would use that term! I'm just a tiny bit clumsy, it could happen to anyone!"_

"Hmm… Louise, maybe you and Felecia could have a talk later," Kirche says.

"Huh? Why would we?" Louise asks.

"Well, she's got her clumsy complex, and you've got a shortness complex, so maybe if you talk you could work things out," Kirche offers.

"Oh, I thought you wanted my help winning this game," Louise says. "I suppose I was wrong. Guess I'll just concede."

"H-hey, no need to be hasty, right?" Kirche tries to backpedal. "Let's just fire the cannons, okay? Tabitha, what would be a good target?"

"He's building forward cannons," Tabitha replies. "He's also preparing drills."

"Trying to drill through our defense, then take out our offense so he can just spam his lasers," Kirche muses to herself. "Clever kid. Louise, the cannons are all ready to fire, and they're ready to fire hard. Have our cannons focus on his cannons and the bomb walkers on the drills. Even with those drills it'll take a bit to cut through our shields, so we can weaken his offensive capabilities before he gets a chance to do too much damage."

_Aye aye, Captain,_ Louise thinks to herself as she starts rotating all of her teams towers to fire at their targets. Thanks to the upgrades they had placed, Team Blue's cannons were more than capable of handling a forward guard that hadn't even been fully assembled. Team Red's cannons were starting to be dismantled one by one, and while the drills were able to bore through the shield towers, and even take a few magnet towers with them, they two were destroyed.

"Perfect!" Kirche says with a grin. "Poor El seems to have forgotten that we're a fully upgraded base. Okay, now to focus on pushing our advantage."

"Before that, I have a question," Louise says.

"Go ahead, Darling," Kirche says.

"If the Prince has this fancy laser tower that can hit anything at any range, why hasn't he been firing it, or building more?" Louise asks.

Kirche's confident grin melts into look of horror.

_"Well, your Majesty, allow me to explain,"_ Elden pipes in on the screen. _"You see, Laser Towers and Regiment Bunkers have a unique mechanic. Every other attack-type tower has a meter that fills over time and when filled it automatically fires. Towers and Regiments can switch to manual, so when the meter is filled you don't necessarily fire any shots."_

Louise sees a set of ten Laser Towers start whirring to life.

_"And when you let them charge for long enough, they actually manage to store an additional shot, so you can fire them twice in a row. The downside is they're obviously not firing, and if they take even a single point of damage, the charges are lost."_

The laser towers fire off, each one aimed at a different one of Team Blue's upgrade towers. Elden manipulates his screen and aims the towers, causing the lasers to seep across the map and do additional damage to Louise's entire side of the field. Every tower on Louise's side of the field is destroyed, save for a single cannon that was left in critical condition.

_"But, I don't think that'll be a problem for the rest of this game," _Elden says as he aims the laser towers at Louise's castle. He presses a button on his screen and fires their second shot.

The lasers tear through the castle, shaking the very foundation and nearly knocking Team Blue over. Once the beams subside Louise takes stock of the situation.

"He knocked us to a bit below half health," Louise says. "We've got one cannon left and it's nearly destroyed. We'll have enough for another tower in maybe half a minute."

"That damn brat!" Kirche swears. "Using his front line as a distraction so he could swoop in with that damn laser barrage."

"Not even," Tabitha says. "Sacrificed his front lines for the barrage."

"Huh?" Kirche asks.

"Lasers wouldn't have gotten past shields," Tabitha says. "Drills beat shields, we beat drills, we don't notice the lasers. Complete victory for him."

_"Correct!" _Elden chimes in. _"Took a lot of money to place all those laser towers, and that front line was expensive as all hell! Honestly if you could have found a way to dismantle the front lines without losing your shields I'd have been completely SOL. Not that it matters now. Now I get to take game one!"_

"Well his lasers can't be ready, so what's he mean by that?" Kirche asks.

"Um… Kirche, question again," Louise says. "Why's the screen say 'DANGER' in big red letters?"

"Oh damn it!" Kirche swears again. "Seriously El? You just had to be fancy about it, you couldn't just off us like a normal person?"

_"Well, I had one left over from Jakob's original plan, and figured I'd use it!" _Elden replies. _"The original goal was to distract you with the lasers and slip a Warhead through, but this works just as fine, right Jakob!"_

_"Some plans are quite easy to change around,_" Jakob says, some arrogance creeping into his voice.

"Warhead?" Louise asks.

"Instant win mechanic," Tabitha says.

"I mean, it does do 50% of your castle health in one go," Kirche says. "Wait, explanation later, we might be able to pull something off! Louise, build as many cannons as we can and aim them at the giant incoming missile!"

"Missile?" Louise asks. "No idea what that is, but I'll play along. Let's see, here we go."

Unfortunately, due to having placed so many factories and clock towers earlier, Team Blue was extremely low on funds and could only afford an additional two towers at that moment.

"That's fine!" Kirche says. "Warheads are made so that three cannons at half the field can take it down if they focus! Just keep calm and aim carefully."

As Kirche says that Louise finally catches a glimpse of the Warhead. Louise didn't really know what to think of it. As far as she was concerned it was just an oval sitting on a rectangle that was slowly flying for her base. _That's what a missile looks like? Odd shape. Whatever, just fire at it, I guess. We're still at like half health, if we can get rid of the missile then we can still pull it back. Probably not, but optimism's a nice thing to have._

The three cannons open fire and pelt the Warhead with shots. Each shot explodes once it makes contact, but seems to do little to slow the beast down. Of course that's because it's a video game and doesn't need to follow the laws of physics. If the missile was easily knocked off course by a single shot from the weakest cannon in the game, then that wouldn't be fun. It was cases like that where realism took a back seat. Instead of being knocked off path, there was simply a bar floating next to the Warhead that showed it's HP being drained by the constant barrage of cannon fire. By the time the Warhead was about to cross the field onto Louise's side of the map, it had already been knocked to almost half health.

"Yes, keep it up Louise, we've almost got it!" Kirche cheers.

_"Hmmm… Not quite,"_ Elden says over the mic.

A white building adorned with a red cross appears at the center of the field and starts emitting a glowing white aura. The Warhead passes through the aura and it's health bar starts filling up again.

_"Aren't hospitals just grand?"_ Felecia asks Team Blue._ "They're always such a helpful institutions, and I do so enjoy them."_

_Considering what I've heard, it wouldn't surprise me if you have plenty of first hand experience at hospitals,_ Louise thinks to herself.

"Louise, focus fire on the hospital!" Kirche calls out. "It's healing all the damage we did to the Warhead!"

"But if we take time to fire at the hospital, wouldn't that mean we wouldn't be able to do enough damage to the Warhead to stop it from hitting us?" Louise asks.

"Then make more towers to destroy the hospital and then have them help drop the Warhead!"

"We only just gained enough to build another cannon, would that really be enough to stop the hospital and the missile?"

The look on Kirche's face would suggest Louise had physically slapped her instead of simply asking a question.

_"I do believe there's a term for situations like this,"_ Elden says.

_"And I do believe that term is 'checkmate,'"_ Jakob finishes the thought.

Despite the cannons still doing their best to take down the missile, the hospital had healed just enough health. Team Blue was left with no other option then to watch as the Warhead sailed through their defenses and into their castle. The resulting explosion was so bright that Louise was forced to close her eyes for fear of being blinded. _Wait, none of this is real, I'd be fine. _Louise opened her eyes, and then immediately shut them again._ It's real enough! Owww, that stings!_

Once the light faded and the dust settled, nothing was left of Team Blue's castle.

_"And round 1 goes to Team Red,"_ Elden saws with a hint of satisfaction.

"Don't get too cocky just yet!" Kirche yells. "Me and Tabitha are just as capable of beating you as you are of beating us! This game isn't over yet."

_"You know, I just thought of something,"_ Felecia says. _"Whenever you win against the Prince, isn't it usually in a one on one game?"_

"Your point?" Tabitha asks.

_"Well, Tabitha is certainly good enough to beat the Prince, and so is Kirche. But this isn't one on one, it's three against three."_

"I don't get it," Louise says.

_"Allow me to make it a bit more clear,"_ Jakob steps in to explain. _"In a game where the two players are of equal skill, it's always up in the air who's going to win. Tabitha, Kirche and the Prince are all at around the same level of proficiency at this game, and myself and Felecia aren't that bad either. But this is a team sport, and a team is only as strong as it's weakest link."_

"Are you suggesting that I'm bringing the team down?" Louise asks.

_"A team of three competent players versus a team of two competent players and someone who's never played a video game in her entire life and has a history of losing. Which side is more likely to win?"_ Jakob asks.

_"Hey, hey, she's still a queen, cut her a bit of slack!"_ Elden says. _"Not like she's completely incompetent, she's clearly got some skills. There's still at least one more game left, give her some time to get her legs under her."_

"Is that going to help?" Kirche asks. "Louise, do you think you can figure this game out that quickly?"

_Nope,_ Louise thinks. _Not in the slightest. Dang it Louise, at least pretend you're a bit concerned about this, you owe Kirche that favor! Fake some enthusiasm or something!_

"I think I'm starting to get it," Louise lies. "We've got another game, right? I can maybe figure something out."

"That's reassuring," Kirche says with a smile. "Thanks Darling. Okay, round two set up is starting and communications are getting cut. Good luck next round El, we're coming for you!"

_"Best of luck Kir, don't make it too easy!"_ Elden says with a smile.

"Okay, round two, let's think this through," Kirche says. "Elden went for a subversive play style. He tried making us think he was doing one thing, then pulled the rug out from under us. That said, he still fit into the triangle."

"Triangle?" Louise asks.

"Basic play styles," Tabitha explains. "Defensive play is beaten by overwhelming aggression, aggression is bested by a balanced play style, and balanced play styles are best dealt with by being defensive."

"Right. Oh, explanations!" Kirche remembers something. "Sorry, I freaked out and didn't explain Warheads. Basically, it's what you saw. It costs a lot of money, takes a lot of time, and they can only be fired from your base, but the warhead is incredibly powerful. It's the 'drop everything and deal with this problem' in this game. It's risky, but good play with it can win the game, as you saw."

"Okay, thanks for that. So Elden was playing pretty defensively, right?" Louise asks. "He baited us into making a move and then countered with his laser grid."

"Exactly," Kirche says. "Which means we go super aggressive next round to blow through that style and score."

"Already set up," Louise says.

"Excuse me?" Kirche asks.

"I picked out our towers," Louise says. "I got rid of the bomb walkers though and replaced them with a hospital, it seemed like it'd be nice to heal our towers when they get damaged."

"Louise, were you just not listening?" Kirche asks. "What we had last time was balanced play, which is most easily beaten by defensive play, which El is using. Why would we go with the same play style we just lost with?"

"That triangle, right?" Louise asks.

"I just explained why that doesn't work," Kirche says. "It's something me, Tabby and El talk about all the time to figure out the best strategies to counter with and all that fun stuff."

"So if he knows about the triangle, wouldn't he know that you're going to try an aggressive play style next?" Louise asks.

"… Huh?" Kirche asks.

"He plays defensive in this round, which you know is countered by aggression," Louise starts. "That means he'd go for a balanced play to catch you off guard. Doesn't defensive play beat balanced?"

"Louise, I get what you're going for, but Elden isn't _that_ clever," Kirche says. "He's never been the one to put mind games like that into his play."

"… Jakob might," Tabitha says after some consideration. "He likes doing things like that."

"Well yeah that's true, but we're up against Eld…" Kirche trails off when she sees the puzzle pieces start connecting. "That's right! It isn't a one on one match, it's a team battle! We're not going up against just Elden and his strategies, we're going up against Elden and his servants! I get it now. Whew, thanks Louise, you kept us from falling into that trap."

"Huh? You can lay traps in this game?" Louise asks. "I thought you just shot cannons and stuff like that."

"… You… You didn't see the trap?" Kirche is bewildered. "How'd you come to the conclusion that we were being played?"

"Isn't that a normal conclusion to draw?" Louise asks with tilt of her head. "That's how it always was back at the academy. Students would do their weird mind games and make me think they were going to go one way when they were really going another. Well, usually they knew I'd anticipate that trick so they'd swap back to their original idea and catch me off guard, so I never managed to get a win by thinking like that. Sometimes I'd wonder if they anticipated me figuring it and try to play accordingly, but I always messed it up at some part."

"…" Kirche is stunned in speechlessness. _'Did… did she really overthink every game at the academy that much? Oh my god that explains so much.'_

"Start game," Tabitha says to hopefully switch the topic.

"R-right!" Kirche says, eager to move onto something else. "We'll go with our idea and play defensively to counter their balanced play! Sound good?"

"Fine by me," Tabitha says.

"No objections," Louise says.

"Perfect! Let's get this show on the road!" Kirche says as she pushes the ready button on her screen. A green flag appears above Team Blue's castle, followed shortly by a countdown on their screens.

**_3…_**

**_2…_**

**_1…_**

**_ROUND START!_**


	12. Chapter 10-2

**Author Notes:**

Hey, this story isn't dead! Also I lost my notes on how this game was supposed to go so I'm making stuff up as I go along even more than usual! Yay!

**Chapter 10-2**

**Round 2:**

**Starting funds: 200 gold**

**Team Louise's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Shield Ray (75 gold), Magnet Tower (100 gold), Hospital (100 gold), Jewelers (250 gold), Factory (150 gold), Clock Tower (200 gold).**

**Team Elden's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Laser Tower (125 gold), Factory (150 gold), Driller (100 gold), Bomb Walkers (60 gold), Clock Tower (200 gold), Warhead (2500 gold).**

"So, Darling, how do you think we should start this one off?" Kirche asks.

"We're playing defensively sooo… Build shields?" Louise asks.

"Get money," Tabitha corrects.

"Well, technically you're both right," Kirche says. "We can't do anything without first building a proper economy, but we'll need those shields up as soon as possible. Since we're playing defensively, our priority should be to set up our defenses. Knowing that El's likely to lead off with a laser or two, shields are certainly a good idea."

"Okay then, I'll just start putting some shields down," Louise says. "Tabitha, could you set up the Mining Houses while I do that?"

"No problem."

Tabitha places down a mining house and Louise places a shield right next to it.

"Ah! It's pointing the wrong way!" Louise exclaims as she tries to right the position of the shield so it can properly function.

"Oh, right, shields are kind of wonky," Kirche explains. "Remember to aim them before you place them so they show up in the way you want them."

"Right, because why make anything in this game simple?" Louise complains as she selects a location for another Shield Tower, rotates it so it faces the proper direction and places it down. Just as Louise finishes placing the Shield Tower, a laser cuts through the air. The laser hits the shield projected by the tower and is reflected into the sky, doing no damage to either player's castle.

"Ha! Did you really think the same trick would work a second time?" Kirche asks Elden.

_"Damn it Jakob, you said they wouldn't have any defense this round!"_ Elden's voice comes in over the mic.

_"Indeed, I did say that. It appears they neglected to take your play style triangle into account with their planning. Clever players."_

_"Or they're just too stupid to fall into a trap like that,"_ Felecia proposes her interpretation.

_We'll, she's not wrong,_ Kirche thinks to herself.

"Doesn't matter, either way, we're on to your little game!" Kirche says to keep the conversation from steering too far off course. "Don't think you can just play us that easily."

_"We'll see who gets played in the end,"_ Elden says. _"After all, this round has just started, right? Don't think that's the only trick we've got up our sleeves."_

"So that's what happens when a laser shoots a shield?" Louise wasn't paying attention to their conversation at all.

"Reflects harmlessly," Tabitha confirms. "Usually. Sometimes hits your constructs."

"Well things don't just stop being deadly because they hit a mirror," Kirche says. "So uh… make sure our shields don't point towards any of our stuff, okay Darling? The point is to keep the laser from hurting us."

"Got it," Louise says as she rotates the shields so that they face away from each other while still providing some semblance of protection.

"Okay, we've got money rolling in, and I think we've got enough shields," Kirche starts assessing the situation. "I'll get the magnets set up for extra defense. Louise, start placing cannons when able to. Tabitha will handle the territory management. We can't hit Elden's castle from here, but we can start building some defense for if he starts pushing forward."

Louise nods her head and builds the cannons. She places some of the cannons behind the safety of the shield towers, while the other cannons are placed on the front lines where they'll have a better shot. They also served as a good distraction, as those were the first cannons Team Elden had decided to fire upon.

"Oh, I see, you want war, El?" Kirche asks. "We'll give you war. Louise, fire everything!"

_Everything's already firing. Remember Kirche, our armada is only half as impressive Germania's postal service,_ Louise thinks to herself as she makes sure the cannons are firing in the right general area. The cannons exchange shots, pelting each side's armaments with shots. Since Elden had fired the first shot, his cannons had the advantage, and it seemed he'd be able to wipe out Team Louise's front lines.

_"It certainly seems we'll win this engagement," _Felecia says over the mic. _"I do hope your plan wasn't as simple as building a few cannons where you don't have any proper defense."_

"Oh! That reminds me," Louise says. "I was going to give you a present, Felecia."

_"Excuse me? What kind of present?" _

Louise taps her screen a few time and places hospitals next to each of her team's front line cannons.

"I heard that you trip a lot, so I figured I'd build a few hospitals for you to stay at when you hurt yourself," Louise says.

_"… You damn little bi-"_

Kirche cuts off the mic before Felecia can finish. Louise giggles to herself.

"She's fun," Louise says. "Anyway, they shouldn't be able to blow up our cannons now, right?"

"You cut it a bit close for my tastes, but yes, our cannons should be safe," Kirche says. "Unless they focus multiple cannons on one of ours, they can't do anything, but if they do that they open themselves up to an attack from us. Now we start wiping out their front lines and advance forward."

Team Louise's cannons eventually win the battle of attrition, with Elden's cannons being destroyed.

"Ha! How do you like that, El?" Kirche asks. "Feeling the sweat drip down your forehead yet? Worried we might be taking this round?"

_"Well,"_ Elden begins. _"If I were to put myself in your position, I'd be a bit worried about my defenses."_

"Excuse m-"

***BAAANNG!***

"What the hell was that?!" Kirche exclaims.

"Shields are going down," Taibtha tells her. "Towers are being destroyed."

"What hit them? We took out the cannons!"

_"It's always a good idea to check the ground, just in case you trip over something,"_ Jakob says over the mic.

Kirche looks at her map and sees groups of red dots walking across the map towards the shield towers. Her eyes widen in surprise.

"Bomb walkers? Damn it El, you set us up!" Kirche exclaims.

_"Woah, hey, Jakob's the one who set you up, this was his idea,"_ Elden defends himself. _"Pretty easy idea to come up with though. After all, if we're going to lose our front lines eventually, might as well make use of the distraction, right? Now don't mind me, I'm just going to do a little cleaning up."_

Elden's laser cannons whir to life and start firing at the exposed mining houses. All but one is destroyed, but even that mining house is hanging on with only a pixel of health. One of Elden's laser cannons starts whirring to life and preparing to finish off all that last pixel.

"Louise quick, get a shield up, we can't afford to lost that mining house!" Kirche exclaims.

"On it!" Louise replies, readying the shield tower.

Louise taps the map and the shield tower springs up right in front of the mining house, just as the laser cannon fires. The laser hits the shield and bounces back towards Elden's side of the map and right into one of his Bomb Walker towers, causing it to explode.

_"Woah! Nice reflect!"_ Elden says over the mic.

"That's a thing you can do?" Louise is surprised by the outcome of that exchange.

"Lasers hurt everything," Tabitha says. "Very dangerous to yourself if not careful."

"Not now, we'll finish that thought in a bit," Kirche says as she starts furiously working the map. "Okay, just wait a second, wait a second, okay not put a jewelers next to the mining house, get more income. Okay, that's going. Tabitha, focus on the front line cannons, make sure no more bomb walkers come through, got it?"

"Understood," Tabitha says as she looks at her screen and monitors the front lines.

"Louise, keep an eye on our money, set up shields first and then put mining houses behind them. We need to rebuild our treasury!"

"…"

"Hey, Louise?" Kirche asks. "You okay there."

"O-Oh! Sorry, I got distracted by something for a second there," Louise responds. "Sorry about that. Treasury stuff, right?"

"Right," Kirche says with a nod of her head. "Keep you head in the game, Darling. We can't afford to toss this round away like the last one."

"Got it," Louise says.

The three work on rebuilding their forces after that offensive push. Louise places a shield down and looks at the map. She studies the map carefully, looking at several points and tracing lines between them with her finger.

"So our shields are here and here… he's got five lasers that are… Mmmmm…" Louise starts mumbling to herself.

"Damn it," Kirche curses. The rebuilding of the offense and the upkeep of the front line was going terrible. For every bomb walker that their cannons could fend off, a laser would come in and do damage to either their front line offense, or hospital defense.

_"Having fun, Lady Kirche?"_ Jakob pipes in over the mic.

"Oh, don't worry, this is the most excited I've ever been," Kirche says, forcing a smile.

"We could… no, that wouldn't work. Can't bait them into doing that. Maybe…" Louise is thinking.

"We can't keep this up," Kirche says to Tabitha. "We don't have the funds to keep replacing the hospitals and keep our cannons firing, and we certainly can't push forward with those damn walkers and lasers keeping us at bay. Tabitha, how much longer can we keep this up before we lose?"

"… Two minutes, maybe," Tabitha responds after some thought.

"Think, think, think," Kirche mutters to herself. "The lasers are too far back for us to hit with our current set up, and even if we could, taking time to destroy the lasers means letting the bomb walkers just stroll up to our mining houses and having their way. Focusing on destroying the Bomb Walker towers means we can't stop the actual Bomb Walkers which means we're screwed in that case too!"

"So if we got rid of the Bomb Walkers we'd be more of less fine, right?" Louise asks.

"It'd help," Kirche says. "We'd still have to deal with his lasers, but those don't require as much constant babysitting as the stupid Bomb Walkers, so we'd be better, but not safe.."

Louise nods and starts thinking.

"Hey Tabitha, are you any good at math?" Louise asks, apropos of nothing.

"Passable, why?"

"Kirche, do you think we could trick Elden into firing at some of our towers?"

"Don't need to trick him to do that, that's kind of his goal at the moment."

"I mean something specific," Louise clarifies.

"Yeah, probably wouldn't be too hard," Kirche says, sounding unsure. "Why do you ask?"

"I had an idea," Louise explains.

"Oh, this should be good. Mind explaining?" Kirche asks.

"In a minute. I want to go over it with Tabitha first, make sure I'm not just misunderstanding how this game works."

Louise and Tabitha huddle together and start talking quietly, occasionally pointing at the map. Kirche watches the two for a few seconds before turning her attention to the map. They were down to three cannons and matching hospitals on the front lines, two mining houses, one jewels and three shield towers protecting their income. Elden meanwhile was more then fine with five laser towers and three bomb walkers that were being buffed by clock towers to keep Louise's team on guard.

_"Man, this isn't really that fun anymore,"_ Elden chimes in over the mic. _"Isn't this just you delaying the inevitable? There's not much you can do with that piss poor income, right?"_

"Just you wait El, we've got one heck of a plan ready for you," Kirche says.

_"Plans are my forte, thank you,"_ Jakob replies. _"I'd appreciate it if you left servant duties to the servant."_

"Well-" Kirche stops her sentence when she see's Louise silent wave at her to try and get her attention. Kirche nods at them to show she's paying attention. Tabitha points at a few towers on the map and draws an "X" over them with her finger. Kirche raises an eyebrow in surprise, but shrugs in acceptance.

_"What, suddenly realize that the round is basically over?"_ Felecia asks.

"Not really, I was just getting confirmation from our treasurer," Kirche says, aiming their frontline cannons at three of Elden's laser towers and firing. The cannonballs arc through the air and land inches in front of each laser tower. The explosion of the cannonballs does one point of damage to the tower. If they kept up that pace then the towers would likely explode around the same time as the Sun.

_"Um…"_ Elden is confused by this strategy shift.

"See, I've just got confirmation that have enough funds coming in to win this particular battle of attrition," Kirche says with a smile. "And once you're down three lasers we can move in and destroy your castle."

_"Um… yeah, no,"_ Elden says. _"There's no way that works like that. Like, at all."_

"Really? Are you that confident in that bet?" Kirche asks. "I know you can't see it, but I'm looking at this income right now and it's rolling in surprisingly nicely. Not to mention we've got a solid defense up to protect our investment."

_"Your highness, permission to prove them wrong?"_ Jakob asks Elden.

_"Go ahead, we've already proved why this is stupid,"_ Elden responds.

Elden's team ceases firing their laser canons, opting to start charging the Laser Towers to store a second shot. Felecia taps the map and directs the the Bomb Walkers to start marching towards the shield towers protecting Team Louise's two mining houses. Kirche redirects one of the frontline cannons to fire at the Bomb Walker Towers to do some damage, but Elden laughs the attempt off.

_"Even if you somehow blow up the Bomb Walker Towers now, there's still enough walking towards you to destroy your defenses twice over!"_

"Damn it," Kirche curses, looking at the march of the bombs. One they reaches their destination they detonate, draining the health of the Shield Towers and causing them to collapse.

_"Let's see, three Cannons and two Mining Houses for a total of five towers, and wouldn't you know it, we've got five Laser Towers fully charged! Second shot and everything!" _Elden proclaims as he carefully aims each Laser Tower at one of Team Louise's remaining towers..

"I pray you two know what you're doing," Kirche whispers to Tabitha and Louise. The two remains quiet, staring intently at their screens.

_"Your highness, permission to give the order?"_ Felecia asks.

_"Go right ahead."_

_"All Laser Towers, open fire!"_

Felecia presses the button on her screen that fires the Laser Towers, while Tabitha and Louise press down on their screens. Five sets of laser shoot across the map, and five Shield Towers appear in front of Team Louise's towers. The lasers hit the shield and are reflected back, two lasers burning through the Bomb Walker Towers and the remaining three firing directly into Elden's castle, rocking it to it's very foundation and knocking it down to 75% health.

_"W-woah, what the hell was that?!"_ Elden exclaims once the volley finishes.

"Math," Tabitha responds.

"Angles aren't that hard to figure out," Louise says. "If we could bounce one of your lasers back at one of your towers, why not bounce five back?"

"Great job Tabitha and Darling," Kirche exclaims in joy. "Quickly now, build forward!"

Team Louise takes advantage of the momentum and starts building cannons further down the field. Team Elden tries to fight back, aiming at the canons, taking down what they can.

"We're not going to make things that easy on you!" Kirche declares, keeping up the offense, building a new Cannon every time one gets destroyed. "We'll blow through your castle health before you can recover!"

The battle rages on with Team Louise managing to score some hits and bring Elden's castle down to 65% health.

"Kirche, stop," Tabitha says.

"Huh? Why?! We've got the momentum and the match!" Kirche protests.

"Burning through money. Can't keep this up. Besides, new idea," Tabitha says.

"Mmmm. Fine, I'll trust you on this one," Kirche says, stopping the construction of additional Cannons.

The lasers start tearing through Team Louise's offense and soon only one of their turrets was left on Elden's side of the map. Elden stops firing the lasers and lets them charge up.

_"What's the matter? Burn through your meager savings?" _Elden asks with a smirk. _"Darn, just when you were about to claim the game. Such a shame, isn't it?"_

_"Right…"_ Jakob says, sounding concerned about something.

_"Well, all games come to and end eventually. First we'll destroy this cannon, then we'll finish you off. Sound good?"_ Elden asks as he aims his lasers at the last remaining cannon.

_"Wait, Your Highness don't-"_

Jakob's warning goes unheeded as Elden fires all five lasers at the lone cannon. Tabitha almost smiles as she pushes down on her screen. A section of Shield towers appear on Elden's side of the map, two flanking the lone cannon, two off to the sides and one last one. The lasers are reflected by the shields near the cannon and hit the shields off to the side. The lasers bounce off of those shields and head towards the fifth shield. The lasers merge at a single point on that last shield before finally being reflected towards Elden's castle. The megalaser tears through his castle's health, completely eradicating it. Once the megalaser dissipated all that was left was Elden, Jakob and Felecia.

"And Round 2 to Team Blue," Kirche says with a smile and curtsey.

_"Argh, DAMMIT!" _ Elden screams in rage. _"Fell for the same stupid trick you just used! Damn it, I could have sworn you were out of money, you only had those two stupid mining houses!"_

"Proper budgeting," Tabitha responds. "Important skill."

_"That so? I don't know about that, but that whole reflecting the lasers thing was still kind of cool,"_ Elden admits. _"Whose idea was that? Kirche's?"_

"Tabitha's, actually," Louise says. "She's the one who did all the math to make sure those lasers went where they needed, and that last play was all hers."

Tabitha looks at Louise and tilts her head in confusion.

"It's fine, you did all the work, you deserve the credit. Good job, we couldn't have done it without you," Louise whispers to Tabitha with a thumbs up. Tabitha blushes slightly and looks away.

_"Huh, seems a bit weird. Well, Tabitha's always been a clever one, that's why she's so quiet,"_ Elden says.

"Those two things have nothing in common," Kirche corrects him.

_"Yeah, Jakob is pretty smart but he never shuts up,"_ Felecia agrees.

_"I won't dignify that with a response,_" Jakob says.

_"Anyway, you guys won, somehow. Good job. Guess we're going to the final round after all. Think you're ready?"_ Elden asks.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Louise says.

_"All right then, best start picking your load out. Let's make this a good one!"_

The mic cuts out, locking Team Louise at the tower selection screen. Kirche stares at the screen for a minute.

"I have no idea," Kirche says. "Basic Cannon, and Mining house obviously. What else should we take? That leaves us with six more cannons. I guess we'll each pick two? I'll go… Shield and Lasers, I think. A little offense, a little defense. Let's be a bit balanced, I suppose. Tabitha?"

"Hospital and clock tower," Tabitha says, tapping their icons.

"Not bad, not bad, a little survivability and faster fire rate when we need it, good choice," Kirche says with a nod. "Darling?"

"Um… Regiments and Warhead?" Louise says, tapping their icons.

"… Why?" Tabitha asks.

"Because they could be useful?" Louise offers. "You know, soldiers are nice and a big explosion could help a lot."

"We'll probably figure out something with them," Kirche says. "Even if we don't, it's not like you need every single tower to win. I guess we're ready then. Let's wrap this up."

Kirche pushes the ready button on her screen, which raises a green flag above their castle. Shortly afterwards a countdown appears on everyone's screen.

**3…**

**2…**

**1…**

**FINAL ROUND START!**


	13. Chapter 10-3

**Author Notes:**

We're done! We did it! And it's been so long since I started this stupid game that I can't remember if there was any interesting trivia or anything like that for it. I'm so happy there's no games next chapter, that means I might actually have a chance of getting it written out slightly more quickly. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 10-3**

**Round 3:**

**Starting funds: 300 gold**

**Team Louise's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Shield Ray (75 gold), Laser Tower (125 gold), Hospital (100 gold), Regiments (50 gold), Warhead (2500 gold), Clock Tower (200 gold).**

**Team Elden's armaments: Basic Cannon (50 gold), Mining House (50 gold), Laser Tower (125 gold), Factory (150 gold), Driller (100 gold), Bomb Walkers (60 gold), Hospital (100 gold), Warhead (2500 gold).**

Kirche starts working on pushing forward on the map, placing territorial balloons and pointing out good places for Tabitha and Louise to place cannons.

_"Hey, Kir."_

"Yes, El?"

_"Out of curiosity, if I were to win, where do you want to go out for our date?"_

"Little early to be asking a question like that, isn't it?" Kirche asks.

_"Yeah, yeah, not over 'till it's over, not over 'till the opera woman yells or whatever, but I just want to start planning so that way we don't need to wait too long if my team ends up winning. Planning ahead's a thing a good king does, right?"_

"Well, that's true to certain extent, I guess," Kirche says. She takes a minute to think it over. "You know that café down the road from my house?"

_"I think so… The one where you had Tabitha pretend to be your girlfriend?"_

"No no, the one a bit farther down, near the magazines."

_"Oh! That one! With the crepes, right?"_

"With the crepes. If, _IF_, your team wins, we can head there and you can buy me something nice and sweet. Sound fine?"

_"Sounds fine."_

Kirche turns off the mic and resumes looking at the map.

"You're not gonna keep discussing your upcoming date with your boyfriend?" Louise asks.

"Nah, too busy thinking about where to celebrate with my girlfriends when we win," Kirche responds.

"I'm not your girlfriend," Louise and Tabitha respond simultaneously.

"Right, right, sorry Darlings. Anyway, Tabitha, any ideas on how we should advance?"

"Carefully."

"Right, we still don't know what El has on tap, so we can't afford to make any careless plays. For now let's build our economy and set up our backline defenses so we have something to fall back on. Louise, work on getting the economy set up, Tabitha, start planning out where we're going to put our laser towers. I'll work on setting up the front line. Everyone clear?"

"Aye aye captain," Louise says with a mock salute.

Team Kirche begins working on their duties, with Louise locating gold dots on the map and placing mining houses on them, Tabitha creating a laser array and Kirche arming the front line with cannons and defending them with shields as well as placing hospitals near them.

"I love having hospitals," Kirche says. "It's nice having a little wriggle room for if you make a mistake or two."

_"I know, I wish I could bring them with me every game,_" Elden agrees over the mic. _"Like I know that they limit the amount of towers you can select for balance reasons, but I really wish there was some mode or something where you can just have like every tower. Can you imagine a line up of a bunch of supercharged, overclocked laser towers protected by shields, magnet towers and constantly being healed by a hospital, all of which are also being buffed? It'd be ludicrous. Wait, let me count that. Laser, Factory, Clock Tower, Shields, Magnets, Hospital, plus a mining house for money… You could totally do that anyway! That's stupid!"_

"But wouldn't your attack power be awful?" Louise asks him. "Lasers are just harmlessly reflected by shields, right? If your opponent had shields then your whole set up would fall apart."

_"Hmmm… Good point. I think you could fit one more attack type tower in that set up, but I don't know how much it'd help."_

"It depends on your opponents set up, right? If they're overly reliant on shields protecting their towers, wouldn't a bomb walker tower sort that out?"

_"Yeah, yeah, or maybe even a set of Regiments instead. They're a bit weaker than Bomb Walkers, sure, but they're way harder to notice because of how quiet they are, what with just using swords and dismantling towers instead of blowing them up. In that kind of situation you'd want to sneak right past your opponent 'cause if they notice your attack and stop it, you're right back at zero with nothing to show for it."_

"Cannons could work," Tabitha suggests. "Powerful enough to eat opponent's shields, and also work as distraction so they don't attack your defensive towers."

_"Yeah, yeah! Something like that'd work real nicely. Ah, but drills would be better because they'd do a better job of shredding the shields, wouldn't they?"_

"That's what they're made for, right?" Louise asks. "But can't cannons-"

"… Uh, Darlings, all three of you?" Kirche cuts in. "We're in the middle of an _actual_ game, so can we do the theorycrafted games later?"

"Sorry," Tabitha says, looking away from Kirche.

"Got a little carried away," Louise adds.

_"It's not like we've got anything else to talk about!"_ Elden complains over the mic. _"Tabitha basically never talks and I just met Louise, so hell if I know what else to talk to her about. There aren't many topics we can have a friendly conversation about."_

_"Your Majesty, perhaps _don't_ have friendly conversations with our opponents?"_ Jakob suggests.

_"Our mission is to blow them to smithereens, not negotiate a peace deal,"_ Felecia adds. _"Please keep that in mind."_

_"Well, one way of another we'll probably be doing a lot of talking with Tristain in the future, no problem with building a good rapport with the queen, is there?"_

_"No excuses,"_ Jakob says. _"There are times to talk, and times to wage war. This is the latter."_

_We're playing a virtual game. This is the absolute furthest away from a war you can get_, Louise thinks to herself.

"Well, talks or war don't matter much here," Kirche says. "All that matters is us pushing forward and turning your castle into dust so fine that no one will ever know a castle was there to begin with!"

"Ah, so Kirche's a showboat leader. Maybe it's good that she doesn't want to become queen," Louise thinks out loud.

"She's only like this when she's worried about losing," Tabitha assures her.

"I feel like that makes it worse."

"I agree."

"Hey you two, we can't afford to be distracted anymore," Kirche warns them. "This is the final round, we need to kick things up a notch."

"Right," Tabitha says before turning to Louise. "Any ideas?"

"W-why are you asking me?" Louise asks, very surprised by the question. "You're the pro aren't you?"

"Lasers last game were a nice idea," Tabitha says.

"It was one idea born out of desperation and it took like 80% of the game for me to work out the details. Even then, you did all the work on that one."

Tabitha doesn't seem to like that answer, but shrugs and looks at the map. Louise looks at the inventory portion of her screen, taking careful stock of the towers her team had selected.

"Whatcha looking at? Checking out our towers to see what we could do here? Any good ideas?" Kirche asks.

_Of course, after all, this game isn't that hard to figure out._

"No, I'm just here pretending I have any sort of an idea of what I'm doing."

"…"

"… Wait, no, I was supposed to be thinking that," Louise says.

"Did you just get your inner and outer voices mixed up?"

"Shut up, no such thing happened," Louise says. "Got to keep an eye on that, I was doing so good at keeping my mouth shut too."

"Was that last part also supposed to be your inner voice?" Kirche asks.

"Of course not."

_Well some things just making more and more sense,_ Kirche mentally notes with a sigh.

"Well, it'll be fine, probably," Kirche says. "We just have to push forward a little bit more."

"Not easy," Tabitha responds.

The match was what would most watching would call a stalemate. The two teams' forces had reached the center line of the map and were making it impossible for either to push much further. For every shielded cannon Elden's team put up, an overclocked cannon from Kirche's team would meet it. For every one of Kirche's laser towers being healed by hospitals, one of Elden's own laser towers, buffed by the nearby factory, would deal more damage than could be healed. Neither side was gaining ground.

"This is going nowhere," Kirche says. "Tabitha, how much gold do we have at the moment?"

"About 5200, and slowly increasing," Tabitha replies. "Very slowly."

"We need a trump card or something. Something that we can use to work our way through his defenses and do something. Has either castle taken a single point of damage yet?"

"Are we counting the horrendous things we've been doing to our bank account as damage?" Louise asks.

"No, we're not," Kirche says as she looks at the two castle health bars on her screen. "Hmmm. A bit, but the difference between us and them is still negligible. A few lasers that missed the mark and some splash damage from cannonballs that didn't quite make it. I'd say we're around 70% and they're 75%."

"Kirche, be on guard."

"What's wrong Tabby?"

"Lasers have stopped firing. Big push incoming."

_"I mean, that depends on how you define a big push,"_ Elden says over the mic. _"Are we defining it as a big offensive front where we storm the gates or what have you, or are we defining it as a big like physical shove off a cliff?"_

"Why does that matter?" Kirche asks nervously.

_"Because we're planning on both, and we wanted to let you know which was coming first,"_ Jakob answers.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Louise asks.

A big red **"DANGER"** appears on Team Kirche's screens.

_"Well, this game isn't going anywhere particularly fast, and we happen to have a couple thousand extra lying around, so why not?" _Felecia says.

"You're going to toss a Warhead at us?" Kirche asks. Her previous fears and worries instantly melt away and she starts laughing. "HAHAHA! Really? That's your big idea? We've got way more than half health, all a Warhead's going to do at this point is drain your wallet!"

_"Miss Kirche, do you know how Factories in this game work?"_ Jakob asks.

"… Yeah?" Kirche is confused by the question. "They make any nearby towers more powerful, but increase the charge time, making it so they can't fire as often. Simple stuff."

_"This is correct. The way it works is there's a radius around the tower invisible to the players and any tower at least 50% enveloped in that radius is given the buff. Have you ever wondered what fires the Warhead at the opponent?"_

Kirche remains silent.

_"Warheads are weird,"_ Felecia picks up the explanation. _"Due to the unique method of deployment, being only a single shot, as opposed to placing a tower that fires multiple shots, for a brief moment while the warhead is prepared, the entire castle is programed to behave like a tower."_

"Oh shit," Kirche realizes what they're saying.

_"So we place a few, actually like twenty, factories around our castle, fire our Warhead and during that firing, the castle turns into a tower and since we've got our own little army of factories we more than qualify for a damage boost,"_ Elden explains. _"Jakob when a Warhead is buffed by a factory, how much health does it drain if it hits?"_

_"About 75%, if I remember correctly,"_ Jakob answers. _"Not to mention it has the curious effect of making the Warhead itself a touch more durable. Perhaps a bug, but a useful bug in this situation."_

_"Right! So uh… good luck!"_ Elden says. After he cuts the communication there's a deafening silence at Team Kirche's castle.

"The hell is that nonsense?!" Kirche rages. "Why the hell would they let you buff a goddamn WARHEAD like that?! Tabitha!"

"Already preparing defenses. Also preparing several complaint letters to send to the developers when the match is over."

"Perfect!"

_I still don't get the big deal,_ Louise thinks to herself. _They're big, slow and impossible to miss. What's the problem with Warheads? If they hit then that's really your fault for not stopping it, right? They're really more of a big, shiny object to dangle in front of your opponent as bait than an actually legitimate tactic._

The Warhead appears from Elden's castle and starts its slow crawl across the field. Once it gets a fourth of the way to it's destination, Team Kirche aims all of it's cannons and begins unloading.

"W-wait, what are you doing?!" Louise freaks out. "If you focus only on the Warhead the rest of his towers can tear through us!"

"We know!" Kirche says.

"Doesn't matter right now," Tabitha says.

"If that Warhead gets through everything becomes pointless," Kirche says. "Either it hits our castle and we die immediately, or he aimed it at our armaments which are all destroyed and he pushes forward while we're busy scrambling to put together any kind of defense! I'd rather let him take a few now so we can rebuild than let him take all of them at once."

As Kirche finished her sentence, several towers on her side of the field blew up.

"Status report!"

"Down two laser towers, three hospitals, four cannons and one mining house," Tabitha takes inventory.

The sound of exploding cannonballs and firing lasers rings through the air as Team Kirche tries to hold it's defenses in any kind of order.

"So noisy," Louise mutters to herself.

"And this damn thing still won't die!" Kirche yells at no one in particular. "It's just going to keep getting harder if it keeps going like this. Tabitha, can we make it?"

"Heavy damage, but we should," Tabitha says with a nod of her head.

"Thank god," Kirche says with a sigh of relief. "We can scramble about rebuilding after we deal with this-"

**"DANGER"**

"… Come again?" Kirche asks.

_"I mean, what, did you expect us to leave all that money just lying around in our treasury?"_ Elden asks. _"Money doesn't matter much in this game as long as we get a win, right?"_

"A second, freaking Warhead?!" Kirche is in shock.

"Please be quiet," Louise mutters to herself.

_"I mean, to be honest, I don't like the idea much either. Seems like a pretty cheap way to win but a victory's a victory, I guess,"_ Elden says.

"T-Tabitha? Can we still do this?"

"Losing towers quickly. Can likely stop the first Warhead even if reduced to half our forces. The second one…"

"W-We can just build a few more towers to make up the difference, right?" Kirche asks.

"No point, can't keep them up long enough to do any good," Tabitha responds. "His forces are outnumbering us by a growing margin."

"Can't we… I mean…"

_"You know, I think their might be a word for a situation like this," _ Elden says. _"Jakob, I forget. What as that word again?"_

_"I do believe the word is-"_

"I SAID BE QUIET!"

The world became so silent a pin drop could be heard.

_"Y-Your majesty?"_ Felecia asks timidly. _"You okay over there?"_

"You're all so noisy, just be quiet and let me think for a second!" Louise says.

Louise sits down crosslegged on the floor, crosses her arms in front of her chest and stares intently at her screen and all the markings on it. The dwindling number of blue dots showing her team's towers, the red dots showing Team Elden's towers, the two big red skulls showing the oncoming warheads and the number of funds in her castle's treasury. Louise felt like she was staring at the screen for days trying to assemble a puzzle made up of pieces from seven different puzzles.

_We've got two instant kill bombs approaching our tower. One is about five sixths of the way here, the second has yet to cross the one forth mark. We can take out the one closest to us with our meager army, but Elden is hammering us too hard and by the time we take care of the first one we wouldn't have enough forces to deal with the second one. If we have some of our towers take their aim off the first Warhead to start dealing with the enemy towers, there's a small chance we aren't able to take care of the first Warhead in time. There's simply not enough time to take out the first Warhead, thin the enemy towers out a bit and then focus on the second Warhead. The only thing we can do to stand a chance is take out the first Warhead and immediately start firing on the second Warhead. That's all that time permits. But if we start firing on the second Warhead, he starts firing on our towers and destroys them before we get a chance to take it out. Think you stupid Zero, you have to figure out something or we're going to lose and then you'll never be able to pay off that favor you owe Kirche. It's so stupidly difficult though! Why's the main objective feel like it's just a big piece of bait?! … Oh my god. Oh my god, is this what having an epiphany is like?_

A million thoughts fly through Louise's head at once. She grabs a few specific thoughts and memories of conversations from earlier this game and looks at the game map and her team's money.

_Oh my god, we can actually do this._

She bolts to her feet, much to the surprise of her team.

"L-Louise?" Tabitha asks.

"Kirche, Tabitha, we're going to win this game," Louise makes a promise.

"Excuse me?!" Kirche is completely shocked by her friend's declaration.

"Kirche, keep firing at the first Warhead, whatever you do, don't stop doing that," Louise says. "Tabitha, I need you to place a few of _these_ at… I don't know where, pick a few good spots, please. Don't fire them off though, save them until there's a time where they won't notice and then send them at the at the Laser Towers, those are giving us the most amount of trouble with their accuracy, got it?"

"Understood," Tabitha says with a nod before fiddling with her screen.

"I can't believe we almost forgot we had this," Louise says as she taps her screen. "Honestly I'd have been incredibly disappointed if we'd lost when we had this ace in the hole the entire time."

Louise taps on her screen and a large _"_**DANGER"** appears on Team Elden's screen.

_"Um… Mind giving me a rundown of what's happening here?"_ Elden asks over the mic.

"Since I'm an idiot, when we were picking out towers for this final round, I thought it'd be a good idea to have Warheads, even though I have no idea how to use them," Louise says. "Turns out, they can be pretty useful in the right circumstances."

A Warhead is fired from Team Louise's castle and starts moving across the field.

_"Are you trying to aim for a draw and take us down with you?"_ Felecia asks.

_"Preposterous. We still have 75% health and your Warhead is unbuffed,"_ Jakob says. _"Even if we were to do nothing and let it strike us right on the chin we'd still come out with our victory."_

"Sorry, but I already know that," Louise says. "Since we both know that, why do you still think that we'd aim the Warhead at you?"

_"Come again?"_ Elden asks.

Rather than going straight down the middle of the field as Team Elden expected, Team Louise's Warhead starts edging further and further right. The Warhead adjusts it's course and sets itself on the path to collide with Team Elden's second Warhead.

_"Wait, wait, what the hell are you planning?"_ Elden asks.

"We need to get rid of that thing quickly," Louise responds. "This is how to get rid of something quickly."

Team Louise's Warhead inches closer to Team Elden's second Warhead. As it moves, Elden's towers change their aim and being firing at Team Louise's Warhead, attempting to halt it's suicide charge. At that moment Team Louise's armaments finish off the last of the first Warhead's health, causing it to erupt in a fiery explosion.

"Tabitha, now's good, right?" Louise asks, her voice hidden behind the explosion.

Tabitha nods in affirmation and taps on her screen. Team Elden, meanwhile, is completely focused on trying to disarm Louise's Warhead. Unfortunately both Warheads had travelled too far in their paths, and their collision was unavoidable. The Warheads collide and the resulting explosion illuminates the entire playing field.

_"God damn, that was insane," _Elden says over the mic. _"So what's your plan now? You're still kind of in shambles, aren't you?"_

**"DANGER"**

_"… You wanna run that by me again?"_ Elden asks.

"I mean, what, did you expect us to leave all that money just lying around in our treasury?" Louise asks with a smirk.

_"You cheeky queen,"_ Elden says. _"Okay, so you want to hit us with a Warhead. Actually, that won't don't much. We've got our defenses lined up pretty well, and with no other Warhead to distract us, we can dismantle yours quite easily."_

Team Louise's new Warhead slowly crawls along it's path towards Team Elden's castle, and Elden's towers all take aim at the Warhead.

_"Fire!"_ Elden calls out. A single paltry laser towers fires at the Warhead. _"I said fire! That means fire everything!_"

_"Apparently we _are_ firing everything, your majesty,"_ Jakob says.

_"What?! What happened to all of our other towers, I know we had at least four more!"_

"It's always a good idea to check the ground, just in case you trip over something," Louise tells him.

_"Excuse me?"_ Elden looks at his map and sees some strange things happening near his towers. _"What the actual hell are those?"_

"Didn't think you'd recognize them, since we never use them when we normally play," Kirche says. "But surely you recognize the word 'regiment' right, El?"

_"You're kidding!"_ Elden exclaims. _"You took out our towers right under our noses?"_

"Warheads draw attention," Tabitha says. "Good distraction."

"And considering how paltry your defenses are now, I think this particular Warhead will do a bit more then just distract," Kirche says.

_"DAMMIT!"_

As Elden curses, the Warhead reaches it's destination and detonates against his castle. The castle walls shake and nearly fall apart as it's health drops to a paltry 25%.

"And since we have a few soldiers in the barracks, I say we let them have their fun," Kirche says with a smile as she taps her screen to send the last few soldiers on their side of the field to attack Team Elden's castle.

_"Well, we've still got some defense so we can do something!"_ Elden says as he aims his laser tower at the approaching soldiers. As the laser fires, a shield appears between it and the soldiers, reflecting the laser harmlessly into the air.

"Whoopsies, should be careful with that," Kirche taunts. "Wouldn't want that to poke an eye out, would you? Here, let me make sure that never happens."

A cannon tower spawns behind the shield and begins firing at the lone laser tower.

_"Jakob, Felecia! Get some kind of defense back up, we just need a cannon or something to disrupt them long enough for us to get back on track!"_

"Not possible," Tabitha says. "Soldiers have already arrived."

The soldiers approach Elden's Castle gates and start hammering at it, slowly dropping it's health. Team Elden spawns a cannon to fire at the soldiers, only for the cannon to be met with a laser blast from Team Louise's side of the field. They try a bomb walker only for it to suffer the same fate.

_"Come on, don't we have anything that'd help out here?!"_ Elden exclaims.

_"Even if we did we're out of funds!"_ Felecia yells.

"And with that, I think we can call this game," Kirche says. "Tabby, what's the word for a situation like this?"

"Checkmate," Tabitha says as the soldiers drop enemy castle's health down to zero. The gate is smashed open, the walls come crumbling down and the entire castle turns to rubble.

**WINNER: TEAM BLUE!**


	14. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Louise wasn't quite sure how she felt about the sensation that came with exiting the virtual world and reentering the real one. There was a sense of relief that came from being brought back to actual terra firma, but she also felt incredibly nauseous from the sudden jump once the game ended.

"Happens to everyone the first time," Kirche says, seeing how bad Louise was swaying. "Like riding a boat, you'll get used to it."

"Or not, because I'm never doing that again," Louise affirms.

"What? Why not?!" Elden protests. "That was great! How the heck did a first time player like you pull off a play like that?"

"It wasn't really all that impressive, all I did was steal your team's plans," Louise says. "You know, with the Warhead distraction and then the bomb walker thing from round 2. Well, regiments, since we didn't have bomb walkers that round."

"I dunno, I still think it's pretty impressive to put all those pieces together at all," Elden says. "Right Jakob?"

"Indeed, my plans are quite impressive," he says.

"… well, sure, they were, but it was more impressive that Her Majesty managed to steal them and turn them against you," Felecia says.

"No it wasn't."

"Aw, are you pouting?" Felecia asks with a smirk. "Upset because little queeny turned your great plans on you and you didn't see it coming?"

"I'm not pouting," Jakob says with a pout.

"I'm not little," Louise says, also pouting.

"Well, whether it was impressive or not, it happened," Kirche says triumphantly. "We won that game. You know what that means, right El?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Elden sounds dejected. "I made a bet and I'll stick with it. Next time I see him I'll make sure to talk to Dad about-"

"About what?"

Everyone turns towards the new voice. Standing at the entrance to the game room was a man of a reasonably tall frame. While he wasn't that much taller than everyone else in the room, his presence seemed to overwhelm those there and keep them from taking their eyes off of him. If there was any doubt as to who in Germania could have that kind of presence, the shining crown sitting on top of his long, shining, golden hair made it abundantly clear.

"D-Dad! What a pleasant surprise!" Elden says in shock. "You're home early, like really early. T-That's nice!"

_That makes a lot of sense, he looks a lot like an older Elden. No, Elden looks like a younger Fairy King? _Louise spends a few moments thinking about what the difference was between those two statements.

"Indeed. I finished my business faster than previously anticipated. Now, I'm sure they're not needed, but it would be uncouth to skip introductions. Greetings Queen Valliere, I am Oberon, Elden's Father and King of the Fairies. It is an honor to meet you," he says with a bow.

"N-no, the honor is mine," Louise says with a curtsy. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"It appears that my son has coerced you into a game-"

"It was her idea!" Elden interjects.

"You agreed," Tabitha points out.

"And while I heard from the servants that this game was happening, I had not managed to learn what the particular stakes were. Elden, would you care to enlighten your father?"

"Um… Well… How to word it… Dad, you know that uh… Wedding thing that was coming up?"

"You are to be wed to Kirche and then be crowned King, I am aware."

"I was kind of wondering if we could um… call it off? Or like… find someone else for me to marry? Please?"

Oberon pauses for a moment to assess the situation.

"Kirche, this was your idea? Don't answer, I already know. Instead I ask that you answer this question. Do you not wish to be wed because you don't want the responsibilities that come with crown, or do you simply dislike my son?"

"D-Dad!"

"Of course I like Elden, I just think being queen and dealing with that royal business sounds like a pain," Kirche responds without hesitation.

Oberon nods.

"I see. Queen Valliere-"

"Just Louise is fine."

"Do you recall the exact wording of your bet with my son?" Oberon ignores Louise's request.

"Let's see… If his team won the game against me and Kirche's team then Kirche would have to go on a date with him before the wedding. Kirche marrying him wasn't part of his that bet because it was something already decided."

"And if Kirche won?"

"Then Elden would talk to you about calling off the wedding or finding another spouse. He said he couldn't call the wedding off himself because he doesn't have the authority since he's only a prince."

"Sounds about right, right Kir?" Elden says, with Kirche nodding in affirmation. "I don't know if those were the exact exact words, but that was definitely the idea behind the bet which was understood by both sides and all that legal stuff."

"I see. It's unfortunate but with those being the terms of the bet, I must inform you that nothing changes. The wedding will still happen, and Kirche will marry Elden."

"C-come on! We made an official bet and won, the wedding has to be cancelled!" Kirche protests.

"No going back," Tabitha complains.

"The only terms of your bet were that Elden would consult me and attempt to convince me to cancel. I still have the final say on that, and my stance is independent of the results of your game. I'm sorry, but this is simply not something I'm willing to or capable of going back on."

"Dad, I mean come on, they went through all this trouble so can't we do something about it?"

Oberon is silent.

"Your Majesty," Louise begins, trying to turn on her royal negotiation skills. "Is there any particular reason why Elden needs to marry Kirche?"

"Are you offering yourself as a replacement?"

"Denied, she's not my type," Elden says. "Not that I'd have a choice if Dad said to go for it."

"N-No! I like- ehem. That's not what I was offering."

"Wait, Louise, could you finish that earlier sentence?" Kirche asks. "That sounded interes-"

"Shut up Kirche." Kirche shuts up. Louise takes a deep breath and continues. "I understand that this is an important thing that can't just be changed or altered on a whim. However, we have won the right from your son, one of the people most directly affected by this, to opt for some kind of reconsideration. So I'll ask again, is there any particular reason why Elden needs to marry Kirche to be queen, and is there anything that can be done about it?"

Oberon pauses and thinks for a moment. After a bit he sighs, and signals for Jakob to bring him a chair. Once the chair has been brought over, Oberon sits down.

"I am a concerned King. I am concerned about keeping my kingdom and the people in it happy, I am concerned about making sure that the streets are safe and careful, I am concerned about making sure people follow the rules of the world. I am also concerned about what will happen to my kingdom when I am gone."

"D-Dad, don't talk like that," Elden says.

"Are you sick? You seem healthy," Louise notes.

"Not sick, though that is likely not far off," Oberon says. "I'm simply old."

_You barely look older than my sisters. I don't feel like you have the right to say that you're old,_ Louise thinks to herself.

"I can see the surprise on your face," Oberon says. "Yes, I don't seem old, but I'm a fairy. Our aging doesn't show as much as some other races. I am old. Not grievously so, I'm not counting the days until my funeral or anything of the like, but I don't know how much time I have left. Perhaps I'll have more than enough to live to see Elden grow into a fine young ruler. Perhaps I'll become helplessly sick and pass away before the week ends."

"Dad, that's ridiculous, you're just being your paranoid self again," Elden protests. "Every doctor always tells you you're just fine and healthy, right? There's no way you'd die next week, or next month, or year, or decade!"

"Perhaps, perhaps not. I don't know what the future could bring," Oberon says. "That's why I wished for Elden to become King. Once Elden is ruler, I'll no longer have to worry, as the kingdom will be in safe hands."

"I see," Louise says.

"And yet, I still worry. I know that Elden will be a great king, perhaps far greater than I am, but I worry that he's not ready yet. That he'll be crushed by the responsibility."

"A concern that me, Elden and my dad all agreed with," Kirche adds. "Elden's kind of young for that kind of responsibility."

"I am aware," Oberon says. "However some things cannot be put off. When will he be able to handle that responsibility? Next year? The year after? Twenty, thirty years from now? Perhaps long after I'm gone? I couldn't allow myself to sit and wait for some nebulous amount of time, but I also couldn't force him to take the throne before he was ready just to sate my paranoia. I decided that perhaps the best way to mitigate risk was to wed Elden to a worthy queen. Elden would be king and even if he wasn't ready yet, he wouldn't be crushed by the work and responsibility as his queen would share in his burden and help him through it."

"So you picked Kirche?"

"She was not my first choice," Oberon says.

"Jee, thanks pops," Kirche responds.

"How polite," Tabitha adds.

"Apologies, I mean no disrespect," Oberon says. "I simply mean that my first choice was the greatest scholars in Germania, or perhaps the greatest political minds, people smart enough that they could solve any problem that could conceivably come up. I focused on mental ability, rather than who would make a good wife for my son. It was your father, who pointed out my folly."

"Dad did?" Kirche asks.

"It didn't matter how smart the queen was if Elden didn't love her. If he rejected their advice then there was no difference between a genius queen and an idiot queen."

"Dad apologized to me about not taking that into account pretty quickly afterwords," Elden explains. "He asked if there was anyone I had in mind, and I mentioned Kirche."

"Makes sense, Kirche's the best mix of someone smart enough to help, but also most likely to have a good relationship with Elden," Louise reasons.

"Not the best mix, the only mix," Oberon says. "Elden doesn't have many friends."

"I have plenty!" Elden protests. "Y-you just never met them because I play with them at game parlors and stuff and they're always too busy to come over!"

"And how many of those friends would be willing to marry you?" Oberon asks.

"I-I'm sure all of them would jump at the chance!"

"So zero, thank you for confirming my fears."

"D-dad!"

"Do you see my predicament, Queen Valliere? If I give up on the wedding, I give up on my best chance to ensure my kingdom's prosperity."

"… I don't agree with that," Louise says. "There's no guarantee that you'll die before you see Elden grow into a responsible adult. Aren't you just using your son as a way to try and calm your own paranoia?"

"I am," Oberon admits. "As I said, I am a very concerned and worried man. I was always worried, but after my wife was lost to sickness I became much worse. I began losing sleep because of my fears. If someone as healthy and beautiful as her could be taken from us that suddenly, what's to say that couldn't happen to Elden, or to me? What would become of the kingdom then?"

"Dad, they said it was just one of those thing you couldn't do anything about," Elden says.

"I know."

After his response Oberon goes silent, clearly thinking about something.

"Queen Valliere."

"Yes?"

"Do you see that by asking me to give up on this wedding you are asking me to give up on my kingdom entirely and leave it's future to the whims of fate?"

Louise doesn't respond.

"Would you be prepared to do the same?"

"… What's the supposed to mean?" Kirche asks in Louise's stead.

"I am a stubborn man, I'll admit, but I don't want to come across as an unreasonable one. I am willing to play a game."

"Are you sure?" Louise asks.

"I am. If we play and you win, then you will have this."

Oberon reaches into his pant's pocket and pulls out a glass Rook piece.

"D-DAD?!/POPS?!/SIR?!" Elden, Kirche and Tabitha are so shocked that they briefly lose the ability to think coherently.

"You're asking me to give up on my kingdom. Thus for my bet I offer the fairy's Race Piece," Oberon says. "If you win and acquire it, then you'll have the power to call off the wedding yourself. In fact, the wedding will no longer be needed in the first place. In return, you would be betting something of equal value."

"You want Tristain's Race piece?" Louise asks, unsure about what she thinks about this sudden change in direction.

"I would ask that as your bet, yes," Oberon confirms.

"Why?" Tabitha asks. "Why Tristain?"

"A kingdom for a kingdom is a fair bet, but it goes farther," Oberon explains. "I've heard nothing but good things of what she's been doing in Tristain. Cleaning corrupt nobles, restoring Tristain's morale and making Tristain a livable location for the first time in decades."

"… I've got to find the people who spread these rumors and sayings and ask them to stop," Louise mutters to herself. "I've done nowhere near that much, those people are insane."

"Perhaps not yet, but you're well on the road," Oberon says. "If nothing else, you show a sense of care for your kingdom which is something I want for mine. If you could do the same thing for Germania, I'd feel far better about leaving the kingdom to my son."

"So no matter which way the game goes, if I win or you win, you benefit, is that right?" Louise asks.

"Either I gain control of Tristain and you and put you to work cleaning up and maintaining Germania's order, or you gain control of Germania and I can rest easy knowing that the one in control cares about the kingdom enough and has the ability to keep it from falling apart."

"And if I win I can stop Kirche's wedding?"

"You would rule Germania, there would be nothing stopping you. I can give you a moment to think about it if you need."

Louise nods and begins thinking about the proposal.

"Louise," Elden says, "I wouldn't recommend taking the bet."

"You're biased," Louise points out.

"I know! I know! But still, this is a terrible bet for you. If you win all you get is Kirche out of a wedding, and if you lose you lose your entire kingdom. It's completely lopsided. Not to mention my dad's really, really good and you're still kind of new to winning at games, right?"

"Yeah, to a certain extent that I wish you wouldn't bring up."

"S-Sorry, but I just don't want you to go into it thinking this is a fair thing at all."

"Louise, I agree with him," Kirche says.

"What?!" Louise is shocked. "But isn't this the whole reason we came here in the first place?"

"Yeah but… Haaaaaa, look this is a terrible situation and it's just not worth it. I don't want you to lose Tristain at all, and I definitely don't want you to lost it because of something as stupid as getting me out of a marriage I don't necessarily want. It's being framed as a fair bet, kingdom for kingdom, but it's completely lopsided. If I marry Elden then I'm the only one that's unhappy, and even then it's only for a bit, I'm sure I'd become okay with it eventually. If you lose Tristain then everyone that lives there gets their life completely torn apart and that takes a lot longer to get used to."

"Louise, please, it's not worth it," Tabitha says, almost pleadingly.

Louise looks at Elden, then at Kirche, then at Tabitha. She thinks about it for a minute, then nods her head.

"Alright, I'll tell him," Louise says.

"Thank god," Kirche says with a sigh of relief.

"Good choice," Tabitha agrees.

"So I'm sure I know the answer, but I'll ask out of politeness," Oberon says. "Will you play me with both of our race pieces being put on the line, yes or no?"

"Yes."

"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room is shocked.

"Louise what the hell?!" Elden exclaims.

"Why did you say that?!" Kirche is horrified.

"Why did you take that bet?!" Tabitha is screaming.

"I don't know I don't know! What's wrong with me?!" Louise is freaking out.

"Oh? That's a surprise. Are you sure you wish to take this bet?" Oberon asks again.

"Yes, I mean of course, I mean absolutely, I mean positively, I mean sure, I mean- WHY CAN'T I SAY NO?!" Louise is close to fainting.

"Wait, you're actually like, completely incapable of saying no?" Elden asks.

"Every time I try to say no to your dad the word just gets completely mangled and mutated into me saying yes! I don't get it!"

"Oh god."

"What Tabitha, do you know what's happening and how to make it stop?" Kirche asks.

"The bet. Remember, in the carriage?" Tabitha asks.

"What's the carriage have to… Oh come on, that hardly counts as anything official!" Kirche rages.

"Explain so I can tell him no!" Louise pleads.

"Remember on the carriage ride over? Think you can remember the conversation where I explained what we were coming here to do?"

Louise thinks back to when Kirche was explaining everything and remembers the end of that conversation.

_"Okay, that doesn't sound any better. Not interested in dating, I understand. I for one am not interested in marrying that guy. No interest what so ever. But of course Dad isn't going to listen to me, I'm his way into the royal family so he's not going to give that up. Mom's like me, in that she's so disinterested in politics that she doesn't want to step anywhere near this situation. Elden's not going to call it off, he's the one who came up with it in the first place. The king isn't going to call it off, he wants a proper successor. I didn't exactly have a lot of options."_

_"Only one"_

_"Only the one. Tabby reminded me that you owed me some favors, so I thought I'd call one in and see if you could pull anything off. You're royalty now, so I figured that you'd be able to negotiate with the Germanian royalty."_

_"It's not something I've wanted to do, but I suppose it's something I have to try."_

_"That's all I'm asking, Darling. As much as I'd love it if you got me out of this little annoyance, I suppose I can't ask for you to perform a miracle."_

"THAT'S THE REASON FOR THIS STUPIDITY?!" Louise explodes. "THAT STUPID GARBAGE WORDING?!"

"S-seems like it," Kirche says with a forced apologetic smile. "You owe me a favor, and I guess the wording it used was asking you to try and get me out of this, and since the pledges keep you from going back on a promise you're being forced to try and get Pops to call off the the wedding."

"GARBAGE! THAT'S GARBAGE!"

"I see," Oberon says with a grim nod. "The pledges truly are frightening, aren't they?"

"L-Louise, please calm down," Tabitha tries to assuage Louise. "It's not a good situation, but it's what's happening. We've accidentally forced ourselves into a position where we really don't have any other choice in the matter, and while it's not an ideal outcome, exploding and getting angry is only going to make things harder for everyone. You already did really good winning against Elden, so all we need to do is do something like that again. Something like that just isn't possible when you're so upset so please calm down a little, okay? We're still here to help you, all right?"

Louise is ready to explode again but stops, her anger is replaced with confusion.

"… Tabitha I didn't know you could talk for that long uninterrupted."

Tabitha seems confused by the reply, but blushes and looks away, rubbing her bracelet. _Wait, how long has Tabitha had a bracelet on? First time I've ever seen it,_ Louise thinks.

"A-Anyway, focus," Tabitha goes back to short sentences.

"…"

"Darling," Kirche taps Louise on the head.

"S-sorry, I was still horribly confused," Louise apologizes to Kirche before turning to Oberon. "So I'm sure you're aware, but yes I'll accept your bet. Not because I want to, but because I'm forced to by the pledges."

"I'm sorry it had to come to this," Oberon apologizes. "Believe me, I'm deriving just as much enjoyment out of this as you are."

"You don't seem like you derive much enjoyment out of anything," Louise says. Kirche elbows Louise in the side. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Be nicer to the guy your playing for your kingdom!"

"Wait, did I say that out loud?"

"Oh, we're doomed," Kirche is resigned to her fate.

"Jakob, Felecia, please set up Liar's Dice," Oberon orders the servants.

"Right away Your Highness," they reply in tandem. They start clearing away some clutter from the game room and setting up a table.

"Unlike my son and his friends, I'm not terribly fond of Werebeast games," Oberon says, causing Tabitha to pout. "I find them overly complicated and bloated. I much prefer simpler games, so we'll play just that. And don't worry, even if you've never played it before it's a game where all players are on an even field."

"Good, because I've never heard of Liar's Dice," Louise says. "I'm guessing it involves lying and dice."

"You'd be correct," Oberon says.

Jakob and Felecia finish setting up the table, and Oberon motions for everyone to come over. The table is prepared with four seats, four cups and four sets of five dice.

"We'll be playing with four players. Me and my son again Queen Valliere and Kirche," Oberon announces. "Is this acceptable?"

"Fine by me," Kirche says, taking a seat at the East end of the table.

Louise sits at the North end, Elden sits West and Oberon sits South. He passes a cup to each player and a matching set of dice.

"I trust you've played Poker before?" Oberon asks Louise.

"I have. Is this like Poker, but with dice?" Louise asks.

"Essentially," Oberon says. "Each round we shake the dice in our cup and place them down on the table, using the cup to cover what the dice landed on. These are our hands. Much like in Poker, it is advised that you not show other players your hand, or you put yourself at a major disadvantage."

"I kind of figured that."

"Each player will take turns making bets about how many dice are under not just their cup, but every player's cup," Oberon continues the explanation. "Once a player makes their bet, the person clockwise from them will make their bet. With this set up it would go Queen Valliere, then Kirche, then myself, then Elden, then Queen Valliere and so on."

"What do you mean under my cup and every other player's cup?" Louise asks.

"Let's say for example it's my turn." Oberon shakes the dice in his cup and empties them on the table, resulting in two threes, a four, a two and a five. "I'll show you what I rolled for demonstration purposes. For my first bet I would look and see that I rolled a single two. I can choose to guess how many twos were rolled amongst all the player's dice. So I would look at my two, guess that one of you had to have rolled at least one other two and place my bet at 'two twos.'"

"… Okay… And what happens after that?" Louise asks.

"It would be Elden's turn and he would make his bet. The rule is that you must bet higher then the previous player, either in terms of quantity of number rolled, or quality. I bet 'two twos' so Elden would need to bet either 'three twos' or more, or 'two threes.' That or 'four fours,' 'one five,' and so one. You cannot match or go lower than the previous players bet, you must raise the stakes in some manner."

"And where does the risk come in? I'm guessing it's like Poker in that you can call out your opponent?" Louise asks.

"Indeed. If you feel that your opponent has made an impossible or unlikely bet then instead of raising the bet, you can call your opponent. When this happens all players reveal their hand and the dice are counted. If there are at least as many dice as the person called said there were, then they win. If I were to say 'three threes' and Elden calls, if there are at least three threes when the dice are counted I win. If there are less then three threes, then Elden wins."

"When you say 'at least' then that means if you were to bet 'three threes,' Elden called you and there were a total of four threes you would still win?"

"Yes. And when someone calls, the loser loses one of their dice. Using the previous example when Elden called me and was mistaken, he would lose one of his dice, bringing him from five dice to four. When you lose all of your dice you are eliminated. Any questions?"

"I don't believe so," Louise says. "It's basically poker, only it involves everyone's hands instead of just yours."

"Louise are you even any good at poker?" Kirche asks. "You don't look like can hold a poker face to save your life."

"Oh sure, I'm an amazing liar. In fact, I tell lies every day," Louise answers.

"Really?" Tabitha is surprised by that answer.

"Yeah, someone will ask me how I'm doing and I'll say 'I'm fine.'"

"… That's… horribly depressing," Kirche is stunned.

"Really? I thought it was pretty funny," Louise responds.

_"That book Eleanore gave me said that people love self-deprecating humor. I must have just botched the delivery,"_ Louise thinks to herself.

"… A-Anyway!" Kirche wants to get far away from that topic. "Alright, so let's lay out the actual terms."

"Considering the way the game's set up it's look like we're going 2v2," Elden says. "If Louise or Kirche wins, then Tristain will get Germania's Race Piece. If me or Dad wins, we'll get Tristain's Race Piece. Something like that, right dad?"

"Correct," Oberon says. "We'll play until all but one player is eliminated. The last player will win the game for their team in accordance with the terms previously laid out. Is this acceptable?"

"Sounds good enough to me," Kirche says. "Louise?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to say no," Louise responds.

"Then let us begin. Aschente," Oberon announces.

"Aschente."


End file.
